Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Floods: Emergency Services

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has taken steps to establish (a) programmes and (b) facilities for training emergency services on flooding and flood resilience.

Rebecca Pow: The Environment Agency is actively engaged in partnership working with the emergency services and the military to ensure resilience and a readiness to respond to all environmental emergencies, including flooding. Environment Agency teams carry out joint training with the Fire and Rescue Service and other organisations. This involves the deployment of assets such as temporary barriers and mobile pumps to prepare for flooding. The Environment Agency’s work with the Fire and Rescue Services and the National Fire Chiefs Council has resulted in the supply of equipment and training to Fire and Rescue Services. The Environment Agency provides evidence and advice to inform the Government and support others to develop skills and capacity. The Environment Agency’s mapping and modelling services inform and warn communities and emergency responders about flood risk. The Environment Agency also works as part of Local Resilience Forums alongside all emergency responders and other partners. Together they plan for prevention, control and reducing the impact of flooding on local communities. A similar approach is being developed with all emergency services, embedding the Joint Emergency Services Principles - ‘working together, saving lives, reducing harm’. The Environment Agency and Met Office work in collaboration as part of the Flood Forecasting Centre to provide a five-day national flood risk assessment. This provides a strategic summary for planning purposes, outlining all the relevant information from across England.

Farm Tenancy Forum

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her priority outcomes are for the work of the Farm Tenancy Forum.

Mark Spencer: The Government’s priorities for the work of the Farm Tenancy Forum are to support the implementation of the Government response to the Rock Review and to explore all issues relating to the tenant farming sector in England. The Forum will provide ongoing engagement and feedback between Defra and the tenanted sector.

Farm Tenancy Forum

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what was discussed at the first meeting of the Farm Tenancy Forum on 19 July 2023.

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will publish the members of the Farm Tenancy Forum.

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether Baroness Rock has been invited to be a member of the Farm Tenancy Forum.

Mark Spencer: Membership of the Farm Tenancy Forum consists of the organisations set out in the Terms of Reference published on 24 May 2023. The first meeting of the Farm Tenancy Forum discussed priorities for the forward work programme of the Forum in supporting the implementation of the Government response to the Rock Review on tenant farming. Baroness Rock attended for part of the first meeting and will have the opportunity to do so in future alongside the Minister as part of ongoing engagement in the implementation phase and to receive updates on the progress of the Farm Tenancy Forum.

Water: North West

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an estimate of the rate of water leakage in the United Utilities network that serves the North West.

Rebecca Pow: Government has committed to reduce leakage by 37% by 2038 on a trajectory to halve leakage by 2050 and is working with regulators and water companies to achieve this. Ofwat set Performance Commitments for water companies to achieve at the beginning of each price review period. According to United Utilities data, in 2022-23 they outperformed their performance commitment, delivering a 5.9% reduction against the 2019/20 baseline. They also state that they are on track to deliver a 15% reduction in leakage by the end of the current price review period.

Department for Work and Pensions

Data Protection

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent data breaches from appointed agents.

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent future data breaches.

Mims Davies: DWP takes data protection and all data breaches extremely seriously. The Department demands a high standard from any of its appointed agents. It is also standard practice to undertake tailored awareness sessions for colleagues on data protection and data breaches.Our Security and Data Protection Team works closely with commercial colleagues to ensure that the relevant security and data protection clauses are contained in all contracts. In addition, DWP has Supplier Assurance Teams that undertake regular pre and post contract checks on suppliers to ensure they are meeting their obligations under the terms of the contract. The Department regularly undertakes trend analysis and lessons learnt exercises on data breaches if they do occur. Recommendations are implemented and communicated to all relevant parties.

Universal Credit: Childcare

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average value of support claimed under the childcare costs element of universal credit is; and what the average number of children per claimant in respect of whom claims are made is.

Guy Opperman: The average value of support claimed under the childcare costs element of Universal Credit is published and can be found in Table 5 here: Universal Creditclaimants eligible for and receiving the childcare element between March 2021 to February 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Notes:The data has been sourced from Internal Management InformationFigures are for GB only and include households where UC was in payment onlyThe percentage has been rounded to the nearest 1%

Universal Credit: Childcare

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) families were eligible for and (b) eligible families took up up the childcare support component of universal credit in each of the last five years.

Guy Opperman: Figures prior to 2019 are not readily available as Universal Credit operated under two separate administrative systems until UC Full Service roll out was completed in December 2018. We have therefore provided data for the past four financial years 2019-2020 to 2022-2023 in the attached spreadsheet, subject to the caveats set out in the attached.data table  (xlsx, 21.4KB)

Universal Credit

Munira Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children of compulsory school age live in households in receipt of Universal Credit with a household income after tax and before benefits of less than (a) £7,400, (b) £9,075 and (c) £9,390 a year in England.

Munira Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children of compulsory school age live in households in receipt of Universal Credit with a household income after tax and before benefits of less than (a) £7,400, (b) £9,075 and (c) £9,390 a year in each region of England.

Guy Opperman: The requested information is provided in the attached spreadsheet, subject to the caveats set out in the attached.data table (xlsx, 68.6KB)

Health and Safety Executive

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the (a) powers of and (b) funding for the Health and Safety Executive to enable them to carry out investigations (i) quickly and (ii) effectively.

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of qualified health and safety inspectors.

Mims Davies: Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has sufficient powers to enable them to carry out effective investigations within their enforcement responsibility. These are granted through a number of primary and secondary pieces of legislation, principally The Health and Safety at Work Etc. Act. 1974. HSE is funded to deliver a range of different regulatory interventions and its activities are based on intelligence, targeting the most serious risks. This includes industries with the greatest hazards and sectors with the worst risk management record. HSE allocates budgets and resources based on the levels of expected interventions, including inspection, investigation and enforcement activity. As part of HSE’s ongoing strategy work, options are being considered around potential opportunities to enhance both the recruitment and development of regulators in future. HSE runs regular recruitment campaigns to onboard trainee regulators, with a national campaign planned for the latter part of the financial year 2023/24. Once recruited, the Regulators Training Programme (RTP) develops HSE’s new regulators through a programme of operational and formally accredited training, and once qualified undertake a programme of continued professional development (CPD).

Universal Credit: Deductions

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children were living in households in (a) receipt of Universal Credit and (b) subject to deductions in each Parliamentary constituency in the most recent month for which data is available; how much was the (i) total and (ii) average sum of such deductions in each constituency; and what proportion of those sums was deducted to repay advance payments.

Guy Opperman: The requested information is provided in the separate spreadsheet and are subject to the following caveats: 1. For low level geography: volumes have been rounded to the nearest 100, total amounts have been rounded to the nearest £10,000, average amounts have been rounded to the nearest £1 and percentages have been rounded to the nearest percent. For totals at GB level: volumes have been rounded to the nearest 100,000, total amounts have been rounded to the nearest £1,000,000, average amount has been rounded to the nearest £1 and percentages have been rounded to the nearest percent. 2. The sum of individual low level geographies may not sum to the total figure due to rounding.3. Deductions include advance repayments, third party deductions and all other deductions, but exclude sanctions and fraud penalties which are reductions of benefit rather than deductions.4. Children are defined here as being people who are declared as living in the same household as the UC claimant(s) and who are under the age of 20. The number of children may not be equal to the number of dependent children in the household who are eligible for child element for various reasons. This includes children over the age of 16 in non-advanced full-time education, looked-after children and, other young people living in multigenerational households whose parents are not the claimant. Those affected by the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children may also have a larger number of children compared to the number of children entitled to the child element in their household.5. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.6. The ‘unknown' parliamentary constituency equates to 0.2% of all households and relates to households for which a constituency could not be determined due to incomplete postcode information.7. Data for Universal Credit awards made in May 2023 has been provided in line with the latest available UC Household Statistics.8. Claim numbers and number of children on UC will not match official statistics caseloads due to methodological differences.     Data Table (xlsx, 164.6KB)

Department for Work and Pensions: Cost of Living Payments

Olivia Blake: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the cost-of-living payment to employees in his Department who were on a career break during the qualifying period.

Mims Davies: DWP’s Career Break Agreement, which employees sign before their career break commences, sets out that Career Breaks are unpaid and therefore individuals will not be entitled to any remuneration for the duration of their Career Break. This position was considered and reflected in DWP’s approach to implementing the additional payment to eligible employees, that was permitted by the Addendum to the Civil Service Remit Guidance for 2023/24, published by the Cabinet Office.

Personal Independence Payment

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether it is his Department's policy to conduct face-to-face interviews for Personal Independence Payment cases.

Tom Pursglove: Where there is sufficient available evidence, Personal Independence Payment assessments are carried out via a paper-based review, without the need for a formal consultation. Health professionals can also seek additional information from claimants, GPs, or other supporting health professionals, where this might help them complete a paper-based review. If a consultation is required this can be completed either face-to-face, via telephone, or via video call, and assessment providers will aim to identify claimants who need a specific assessment type.

Personal Independence Payment: Parkinson's Disease

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an estimate of the underpayment rate of personal independence payments for people with Parkinson's disease.

Tom Pursglove: No such estimate has been made. Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is intended to act as a contribution towards the extra costs that arise from needs related to a long-term health condition or disability. Entitlement is assessed based on the needs arising from the health condition or disability, rather than a diagnosis of the health condition or disability itself. Any information that a claimant wishes to submit in support of their claim can be considered where that would help establish the needs arising.

Personal Independence Payment: Parkinson's Disease

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the training provided to Personal Independence Payment assessors on helping claimants with Parkinson's disease.

Tom Pursglove: Health Professionals (HPs) receive comprehensive training in assessing functional capability relating to physical and mental health conditions, including Parkinson's disease. Condition specific information on Parkinson’s disease is also available to HPs, which has been quality assured by relevant external experts.Assessment quality is a priority for both providers and the department. The department works extensively with providers to make improvements to guidance, training, and audit procedures, to ensure a high standard is always maintained. The independent audit function continually monitors performance and provides feedback to providers.

Carer's Allowance: Uprating

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has had recent discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of increasing the level of carer's allowance.

Tom Pursglove: There is a statutory annual review of benefit and pensions undertaken in the Autumn. The level of Carer’s Allowance is protected by up-rating it each year in line with the Consumer Prices Index. Since 2010, the rate of Carer’s Allowance has increased from £53.90 to £76.75 a week, providing just under an additional £1200 a year for carers through Carer’s Allowance.The outcome of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions’ review for 2023 will be announced later this year, following the publication of the relevant indices by the Office for National Statistics, and the new rates will enter into force from April 2024.

Personal Independence Payment: Chronic Illnesses

Lloyd Russell-Moyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to exempt people who were diagnosed with lifelong conditions at birth from personal independence payment reassessments.

Tom Pursglove: PIP awards are not condition-based as individuals can be impacted by their health condition(s) in different ways and those impacts can vary over time. However, we recognise that assessments and reviews are not always suitable for our claimants, including those with lifelong or long-term conditions and disabilities. We announced in the Shaping Future Support: Health and Disability White Paper that we will test a new Severe Disability Group in PIP to reduce unnecessary applications and assessments. The first light-touch reviews at the 10 year point for those with ongoing awards, started in August. These are primarily for those with long-term conditions on the highest level of support or whose conditions are stable. The design draws on discussions with charities and other organisations and involves a short form to check whether anything has changed, adjust the award if needed, and confirm we hold up-to-date information.

Personal Independence Payment: Applications

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department is taking steps to increase the number of claims for the personal independence payment by people who have been receiving the limited capability for work related activity component of universal credit for more than twelve months.

Tom Pursglove: Anyone who feels that they can meet the criteria can make a claim for PIP. Information on PIP, including information about eligibility, can be found on www.gov.uk, alongside other information about support available for disabled people.

Personal Independence Payment: Eligibility

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of people with limited capability for work related activity who are eligible for a personal independence payment and do not receive one.

Tom Pursglove: No estimate has been made, and where people are eligible, we encourage them to apply. PIP eligibility is assessed by the PIP process and information can be found on www.gov.uk alongside other information about support available for disabled people.

Personal Independence Payment: Parkinson's Disease

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of Personal Independent Payment assessors using informal observations for claimants with Parkinson's disease on the number of mandatory reconsiderations.

Tom Pursglove: We have not made such an assessment. Entitlement to PIP is assessed based on the needs arising from a long-term health condition or disability, not the health condition or disability itself. The PIP Assessment Guide, used by health professionals who conduct PIP assessments, sets out how informal observations of functional limitations should be used. Informal observations can be a way to reveal abilities and limitations not mentioned in the claimant questionnaire. However, they are only part of the suite of evidence considered by health professionals during an assessment. They must also consider the invisible nature of some symptoms such as fatigue and pain, which may be less easy to identify through observation. Informal observations included in a health professional’s advice to DWP are not viewed in isolation, they are considered alongside all other available evidence to determine PIP entitlement.

Personal Independence Payment: Rhondda Cynon Taf

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data his Department holds on the number of Personal Independence Payment (a) claims and (b) awards made in Rhondda Cynon Taff in each of the last ten years.

Tom Pursglove: Data on Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims and awards can be found on Stat-Xplore. The requested data on claims can be found on the ‘PIP Registrations’ dataset by going to ‘Geography’, ‘National – Regional – LAs – OAs’, ‘DWP Policy Ownership’ and then following the drop downs to Wales and then to Rhondda Cynon Taff. The same filtering can be done on the ‘PIP Clearances’ dataset, while additionally choosing ‘Awarded’ from ‘Clearance Type Detail’ to pick out awards made. You can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, you can access guidance on how to extract the information required.

Personal Independence Payment: Rhondda Cynon Taf

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on what the longest clearance time was for a Personal Independence Payment claim where a decision was reached in Rhondda Cynon Taf in each of the last ten years.

Tom Pursglove: The longest clearance times for a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claim in Rhondda Cynon Taf for each year cannot be provided due to risk of statistical disclosure whereby an individual claimant can be identified.

Personal Independence Payment

Tonia Antoniazzi: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of PIP descriptors for the assessment of people with fluctuating conditions.

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will undertake a review of the suitability of Personal Independence Payment descriptors when assessing people with fluctuating conditions.

Tom Pursglove: The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment criteria account for fluctuations by considering an individual’s ability to undertake 12 specific daily activities over a 12-month period.  It is essential for the assessment to accurately reflect the impact of variations in an individual's level of impairment - this is important for all health conditions and impairments, not only those which more typically fluctuate. For each activity, if a descriptor applies more than 50 per cent of the time, that descriptor should be chosen. All health professionals are required to assess individuals in line with the statutory requirements, including: whether an individual can complete each of the 12 activities; the manner in which they can do it; and whether they can complete each activity “safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable time period”. Many of the changes set out in Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper aim to improve our assessment of fluctuating conditions, such as the way we use medical evidence, and developing the capability of our assessors. We will also explore options for introducing a new way of gathering evidence of fluctuation in a person’s condition before their assessment.

Disability: Human Rights

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission entitled Progress on disability rights in the United Kingdom: 2023, published on 17 August 2023, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the findings of that report on the rights and living conditions of disabled people; and if he will make a statement.

Tom Pursglove: We note the report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission entitled “Progress on disability rights in the United Kingdom: 2023”, published on 17 August 2023. This Government is committed to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and to improving the lives of disabled people. We have implemented numerous policies and programmes to tackle the barriers faced by disabled people, including investing in employment support initiatives, improving social care support and the accessibility of homes and transport. In March, the Department for Work and Pensions published the Health and Disability White Paper, which sets out the Government’s plans to reform the welfare system and make it better meet the needs of disabled people in Great Britain. The Government supported the passage of the British Sign Language Act 2022 which recognises BSL as a language of England, Wales and Scotland in its own right. To further improve accessible communication, we have appointed the non-statutory BSL Advisory Board. In July, we launched an accessible 12-week consultation on our new Disability Action Plan, which is part of this Government’s commitment to create a society that works for everyone, where all can participate and be fully included. The Disability Action Plan will set out the immediate action the Government will take in 2023 and 2024 to improve disabled people’s lives, as well as laying the foundations for longer term change, and it complements the long-term vision set out in the National Disability Strategy. We will be shortly setting out our plans for taking forward individual commitments in the National Disability Strategy, to make the greatest possible impact for disabled people.

Personal Independence Payment

Lloyd Russell-Moyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of personal independence payment reassessments due to take place in 2022 were outstanding on 1 September 2023.

Tom Pursglove: Data on Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Award Reviews cleared or outstanding after April 2023 cannot be released as PIP data after this point is intended for publication at a future date.

Pensions

Mary Kelly Foy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he plans to publish a response to the call for evidence entitled Helping savers understand their pension choices, updated on 11 July 2023.

Laura Trott: The Helping savers understand their pension choices consultation closed on the 5 September 2023. Government will analyse and consider the responses received after the closing date and will publish our response as soon as is practical after this.

Personal Independence Payment: Syndactyly

Paul Bristow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the number of people with syndactyly that were awarded a personal independence payment in each of the last 5 years.

Tom Pursglove: The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Pension Funds: Regulation

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of regulations on pensions funds maladministration.

Laura Trott: The Pensions Ombudsman and their Deputy have legal powers to consider complaints of maladministration and disputes of a fact or law concerning personal and occupational pension schemes. Decisions made by the Ombudsman and their Deputy are legally binding and are covered in the Pension Schemes Act 1993, Part X. The power to decide these matters rests with the Pensions Ombudsman and their Deputy who are appointed by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. Only an Ombudsman can make a final and binding decisions on a case. However, they can delegate any other responsibilities to other people in their organisation.

Hate Crime: Disability

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of including policies to help tackle disability-motivated hate crime in the Disability Action Plan 2023 to 2024.

Tom Pursglove: The Disability Action Plan Consultation asks for feedback on a number of specific proposals, as well as people's views on the plan as a whole and what alternative actions the Government might consider taking forward. We look forward to reviewing the results of this consultation, which will inform the final Disability Action Plan.

Pensions Regulator: Staff

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of (a) board members and (b) employees of the Pensions Regulator have previous experience in the sector that they regulate.

Laura Trott: The Department does not hold this information.

Assistance Animals: Business

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to require businesses to admit guide dogs as part of the Disability Action Plan.

Tom Pursglove: Guide dog access is protected as a reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act 2010. All businesses should be mindful of their duty to make reasonable adjustments to ensure disabled people are able to access goods and services. The Disability Action Plan consultation has specific questions on guide dog access refusals. People who are reliant on guide dogs to access goods and services are encouraged to make their views known via the fully accessible consultation which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/disability-action-plan-2023-to-2024.

Disability

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent progress his Department has made on publishing its Disability Action Plan.

Tom Pursglove: The Disability Action Plan will set out the Government’s ambition to improve the lives of disabled people with immediate and practical measures, while laying the foundations for longer term change. The Disability Action Plan Consultation Document was published on 18 July and will remain open for responses until 6 October 2023. The consultation document sets out a number of proposals and consultation questions - informed by the experiences of disabled people, research and the current policy landscape - as an initial step to make sure policy development direction is correct. We are hosting a series of consultation events for stakeholders, including roundtables focused on the proposed areas of action included in the document. Both general stakeholders and subject matter experts will be attending these. There will also be general forums to encourage discussion on broader disability policy areas; and stakeholder-hosted meetings for members of the public to attend. The findings of this consultation will inform the published Disability Action Plan.

Unemployment: Newport West

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the number of people in Newport West constituency out of work due to (a) sickness and (b) disability since outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic.

Tom Pursglove: Individuals who are out of work will be either economically inactive (where a person is not in work, nor looking for, or available for, work) or unemployed (not in work, but actively seeking work). Whilst data is held on a person’s main reason for being inactive, data on the main reason for being unemployed is not readily available. Therefore, no assessment of trends in the number of people in Newport West who are out of work due to sickness or disability since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has been made. However, data on the number of people who are economically inactive and state long-term sickness as their main reason is available. Between April 2022 and March 2023, there were an estimated 2,900 and 5,500 people in Newport West who were economically inactive and gave long-term sickness as the main reason. This compares to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2019 to March 2020), when the corresponding estimate was between 2,200 and 4,300 people. In general, there is a higher degree of uncertainty around estimates for parliamentary constituencies because at this granular level sample sizes are small, and historic trends can be volatile. Resultantly, differences in the figures for Newport West over time may not be statistically significant (which is the case for the figures quoted above), and therefore any change may be reflective of chance or the variable nature of the sample, and not represent actual change.  Source: Labour Market Profile - Nomis - Official Census and Labour Market Statistics (nomisweb.co.uk).

Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations

Lloyd Russell-Moyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2023 to Question 193236 on Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that personal independence payment reassessments registered in 2022 are reviewed as quickly as possible.

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the backlog in Personal Independence Payment reviews.

Tom Pursglove: We are committed to ensuring people can access financial support through Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in a timely manner. We prioritise new claims, while ensuringclaimants awaiting award reviews remain in payment until we can make a decision. We always aim to make an award review decision as quickly as possible, considering the need to review all available evidence, including that from the claimant. In addition, and in order to improve the service across all PIP activities, we are also: using a blend of phone, video and face-to-face assessments to support customers and deliver a more efficient and user-centred service;increasing case manager and assessment provider health professional resource;making decisions on award reviews where it is safe to do so, without the need to refer the review to an Assessment Provider. Claimants are asked to contact us if their condition changes so their review can be looked at more quickly.

Personal Independence Payment

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the legal basis is for the requirement that a Personal Independence Payment claimant must have fluctuating symptoms present for 50% of a month to receive financial support.

Tom Pursglove: Regulation 7 of the PIP 2013 regulations sets out the legal requirements relating to assessments for those with a fluctuating condition; this is reflected in the PIP Assessment Guide. For each activity, if a descriptor applies on more than 50 per cent of the days in a 12-month period, that descriptor should be chosen. In general, health professionals should record function over an average year for conditions that fluctuate over months, per week for conditions that fluctuate by the day, and by the day for conditions that vary over a day.

Sign Language: Education

Derek Thomas: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department's Disability Unit has made of the (a) adequacy of availability of and (b) strength of demand for courses in British Sign Language.

Tom Pursglove: The Disability Unit does not keep statistics on the adequacy of availability, or strength of demand, for courses in British Sign Language, as this would be a matter for the Department for Education. A British Sign Language (BSL) Advisory Board has been established to help advise the Government on the implementation of the British Sign Language Act 2022. This Act legally recognises BSL as a language of England, Wales and Scotland. It requires government departments to report on how they are ensuring accessibility of their communications through the use of BSL. The BSL Advisory Board is a new expert committee which will advise the Government on the implementation of the BSL Act and other matters important to BSL signers. Amongst other things, the Board will advise on how to increase the numbers of qualified and registered BSL interpreters.

Self-employed: Training

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help support self-employed people with the cost of work-related training.

Guy Opperman: Claimants who have been assessed as “gainfully self-employed”, whose self-employment is their main source of earnings and is regular, organised, developed and in pursuit of profit are supported by an enhanced self-employment work coach for up to 12 months when they become self-employed for the first time. Their work coach can sign-post them to free external sources of advice and training where this is available to help them develop their business. This includes Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Hubs which are funded by the Department of Business and Trade. Claimants who have self-employed earnings but who have been assessed as “not gainfully self-employed” can receive support to develop their self-employment through DWP’s contracted employment programmes if they meet the relevant eligibility criteria. The Department for Work and Pension’s Flexible Support Fund can also be used to pay for training for claimants, including those who are self-employed, in certain circumstances.

Personal Independent Payment: Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis

Kirsten Oswald: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that concerns about (a) pain and (b) fatigue are considered in Personal Independence Payment assessments for claimants with (i) Crohn’s Disease and (ii) ulcerative Colitis.

Tom Pursglove: Personal Independence Payment assessment providers are required to ensure that all health professionals (HP) carrying out assessments are experts in disability analysis, focusing on the effects of health conditions and impairments on the individual claimant's daily life.Whilst HPs do not receive specific training relating to Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, they have access to a range of resources as well as experienced clinicians to support them in assessing individuals with conditions that they may not be familiar with. Additionally, assessment providers engage with medical experts, charities, and relevant stakeholders to strengthen their training programmes. Capita recently developed a Condition Insight Report for HPs on Ulcerative Colitis in collaboration with Crohn’s and Colitis UK.It is stressed in the HP training that, although a claimant may sometimes be able to perform a task, they may not be able to do so safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly, or in a reasonable time-period due to pain, fatigue etc. HPs are expected to take into consideration the invisible nature of fatigue and pain, which may be less easy to identify, when assessing the disabling effect of any condition, including Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, on a claimant’s daily life. This is further explained in parts 1.6.29 and 1.6.35 of the PIP Assessment Guide available on GOV.UK.

Employment: Neurodiversity

Matt Vickers: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans to provide additional support to people in the workplace with clinical neurodiversity conditions.

Matt Vickers: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to support people in the workplace with clinical neurodiversity conditions.

Tom Pursglove: We continue to strive towards providing more support for people in the workplace with clinical neurodiversity conditions. On 2 April 2023, World Autism Acceptance Day, we announced the launch of a new review into autism and employment. The Buckland Review, which is being led by the Rt Hon Member for South Swindon, is focused on supporting employers to recruit and retain autistic people, identifying barriers to this, and developing ways to overcome those barriers. Whilst the Review's primary focus is autism, many of the adjustments and initiatives that would benefit autistic people could also benefit a wider group of people who think differently, including those with other neurodevelopmental conditions such as ADHD, dyslexia, and dyspraxia. The review will present recommendations to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions later this year.

Personal Independent Payment: Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis

Kirsten Oswald: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people with (a) Crohn’s Disease and (b) Ulcerative Colitis were awarded zero points on a Personal Independence Payment assessment for the managing toilet needs or incontinence descriptor in 2022.

Tom Pursglove: Table (a) – Volume and proportion of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimants with Crohn’s Disease or Ulcerative Colitis as a primary condition that scored zero points on Activity 5 (Managing toilet needs or incontinence) in an assessment during 2022. Volume of scoring zero points on activity 5Proportion of total assessmentsCrohn’s Disease2,47054%Ulcerative Colitis1,59053%  Source: PIP Atomic Data Store (ADS)Notes:Data shows initial assessment point scores for both awarded and disallowed cases and does not include point scores after mandatory reconsideration (MR) or appeal;Data is based on primary disabling condition as recorded on the PIP computer systems. Claimants may often have multiple disabling conditions upon which the decision is based, but only the primary condition is shown in these statistics;Data includes claimants who made new claims to PIP and claimants who underwent Disability Living Allowance (DLA) reassessment to PIP;Data includes normal rules and special rules for end-of-life claimants;For some cases, point scores are missing from the data and so these have not been counted;This is unpublished data. It should be used with caution and may be subject to future revision;Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 and percentages to the nearest 1%;Data is for England and Wales only.

Statutory Sick Pay

Jonathan Gullis: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the report by WPI Economics, entitled Making Statutory Sick Pay Work, published on 12 July 2023, what assessment his Department has made of implications for his policies of that report's findings on the impact of low rates of sick pay.

Tom Pursglove: No assessment has been made on the report in question. Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is designed to balance providing support to the individual when they are sick, with the costs to employers of providing such support. Many employers decide to pay more, and for longer, through Occupational Sick Pay. The Government is continuing to keep the SSP system under review.

Carer's Allowance: Bexleyheath and Crayford

Sir David Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were in receipt of Carer's Allowance in the Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency in each of the last five years.

Tom Pursglove: The caseload statistics for Carer’s Allowance are available on DWP Stat-Xplore. The most recent refer to November 2022. Figures for the Carer’s Allowance in payment caseload for Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency are shown below: Time periodCarer’s Allowance in Payment CaseloadNov ‘171,195Nov ‘181,221Nov ‘191,238Nov ‘201,297Nov ‘211,293Nov ‘221,354 The link to access Stat-Xplore is https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk. Guidance for using Stat-Xplore is available at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html.

Sports: Injuries

Ian Blackford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions his Department has had with the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council on assessment of the connection between repeated head injuries or blows to the head sustained during a career as a professional sportsperson and (a) chronic traumatic encephalopathy, (b) dementia and (c) other neurodegenerative diseases.

Ian Blackford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of implications for his policies of the second set of findings from the FOCUS study commissioned by the Football Association and the Professional Footballers’ Association and undertaken by University of Nottingham, published on 17 July 2023.

Tom Pursglove: The department is advised by the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC), an independent scientific body, on changes to the list of occupational diseases for which Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) can be paid. IIAC is carefully considering any connection between neurodegenerative diseases and the possible effects of repeated head injuries or blows to the head sustained during a career as a professional sportsperson. The Council has begun exploring the scientific literature covering various neurodegenerative diseases, which may include chronic traumatic encephalopathy and dementia. IIAC will publish its findings when the investigation is complete. It would be premature to speculate on how the Council’s investigation will progress or whether there is enough evidence of a link between neurodegenerative diseases and professional sportspeople to meet the threshold for a new ‘prescribed disease’ to be recommended by IIAC for the purpose of IIDB entitlement. A disease can only be recommended for prescription by IIAC if:a) the risk to workers in a certain occupation is substantially greater than the risk to the general population, andb) the link between the disease and the occupation can be established or presumed with reasonable certainty. If recommendations are made by IIAC on this matter, they will be carefully considered by the department.

Occupational Health: Young People

Elliot Colburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of expanding young people's access to occupational health services on their mental health.

Tom Pursglove: The Government recognises that expert-led impartial advice, and interventions such as Occupational Health (OH), can provide appropriate and timely work-based support, including for young people, to manage mental health conditions in the workplace. OH as advisory support has a broad remit, including assessments of fitness for work, advice about reasonable adjustments, workability, or return to work plans and can signpost to treatment for specific mental health conditions. In addition to this, the DWP Youth Offer provides individually tailored Work Coach support to young adults aged 16 to 24 who are in the Universal Credit Intensive Work Search group. Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisors work with local partners to signpost young adults to appropriate support. Youth Hubs work with partners to address barriers to young adults moving into employment, including other risk factors that could be associated with mental ill health. The type of support provided in hubs aims to meet the needs of young adults in their local community. We have recommended that all new Youth Hubs consider the barriers young people are facing (including access to mental health support) when determining the support services and partners available from a hub.

Personal Independence Payment: Applications

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of using online PIP pre-application screening questions on the number of disabled people applying for PIP.

Tom Pursglove: On Thursday 27 July, we began testing the next phase of the new online service to apply for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) where a limited number of claimants in selected postcode areas have been able to begin their claim for PIP entirely online. We have completed an equality assessment for this online service and tested it with a range of users to ensure the claimant journey is as easy as possible. Built into this service is an eligibility checker tool with a set of questions designed to help ensure people are aware of what is considered in the PIP application process. These are not screening questions. These pre-application eligibility questions are optional; they are intended to guide a user who may not be sure if PIP is right for them, and signpost them to other benefits applicable. However, citizens in selected user groups and areas where the service is operating can begin their online PIP claim without needing to use this tool. Information within these questions is already included on the GOV.UK PIP guidance pages. Everyone who completes the eligibility checker questions is signposted to claim online if they wish.  We are developing the online service carefully and incrementally. We will continually review the service as we develop it to ensure it meets the needs of claimants.

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care of the number of people in paid employment in (i) England, (ii) Northern Ireland, (iii) Scotland and (iv) Wales who have been diagnosed with lupus.

Tom Pursglove: The information requested is not held by the Government.

Disability: Certification

Simon Lightwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a disability certificate that includes details of a named accompanying person.

Tom Pursglove: While some disabled people may welcome a card or certificate that acts as a proof of disability, we are aware that some disabled people would not wish to carry a card or certificate which confirms their disability or impairment. Some people who may meet the criteria for the Equality Act 2010 definition of disability do not identify as disabled, although they may require reasonable adjustments, and introducing a certificate or card scheme could exclude these persons. The Equality Act 2010 places a duty on businesses and service providers to make reasonable adjustments to improve disabled people’s access to goods and services, so they are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people. This reasonable adjustment duty is an anticipatory duty, meaning that those who provide goods, facilities and services to members of the public are expected to anticipate the reasonable adjustments that disabled customers may require. There is no need for a person to actively prove their disability to be protected by the Equality Act. There are a number of optional schemes and cards in the UK that have been created to meet particular needs and which people may use if they wish. These include the Hidden Disability Sunflower Scheme which discreetly identifies where additional support may be needed and which is gaining widespread recognition, and Nimbus Disability’s Access Card which can help when communicating with a business about the types of support or reasonable adjustments that might be needed to access their services. Naming an accompanying person could prove restrictive. A disabled person may have more than one accompanying person or may be accompanied by different people on different occasions. There are therefore no plans to introduce a disability ID card or certificate at this time.

Statutory Sick Pay

Jonathan Gullis: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans to take steps to improve Statutory Sick Pay.

Jonathan Gullis: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions,  with reference to the report by WPI Economics entitled Making Statutory Sick Pay Work, published on 12 July 2023, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of (a) offering employees statutory sick pay from the first day they are off sick, (b) widening the eligibility criteria for statutory sick pay and (c) increasing the rate of statutory sick pay.

Jonathan Gullis: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of undertaking a review of statutory sick pay.

Tom Pursglove: The Government’s 2019 Health is Everyone’s Business Consultation proposed a package of reforms which aimed to reduce ill-health related job loss and support disabled people and people with health conditions to stay in, and thrive in, work. This included proposals for (limited) reform of SSP. In response to the consultation (2021), the Government maintained that SSP provides an important link between the employee and employer but that this was not the right time to introduce changes to the sick pay system. The Government is continuing to keep the SSP system under review.

Department for Business and Trade

Drugs: Manufacturing Industries

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department has made an assessment of the resilience of the pharmaceutical-grade fill/finish sector.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The Department’s life sciences team is responsible for is attracting investment and enabling exports. The last assessment of UK fill/finish capacity was carried out in mid-2021 by the Vaccines Taskforce. The Department for Business and Trade in collaboration with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, is currently undertaking a voluntary manufacturing survey of the pharmaceutical industry in the UK. The Department is also working closely with the DSIT/DHSC on the Biomanufacturing Fund, which will provide up to £38m in capital grants to incentivise investment in the manufacture of vaccines and biotherapeutics, which could include fill/finish providers.

Iron and steel: Carbon Emissions

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate she has made of the proportion of carbon emissions resulting from the steel industry in each of the last five years.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The Government recognises the importance of a decarbonised and sustainable steel sector and is working closely with industry to support its decarbonisation options. According to Office for National Statistics data (here), the manufacture of basic iron and steel represented between 2 – 3% of all UK carbon dioxide emissions in the latest five-year period for which these were reported. The table below summarises ONS carbon dioxide emissions for the steel industry: Reference yearCarbon dioxide emissions (millions of tonnes)202110.9202011201910.8201810.4201711.1

Iron and steel: Employment

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an estimate of the number of jobs created by the steel industry in each of the last five years.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The Government recognises the vital role that steel plays within the UK economy, supporting local economic growth and levelling-up. According to Office for National Statistics data (here), the provisional release date for the next Business Register and Employment Survey, which includes the year 2022 as a reference period, is September/October 2023. The table below summarises ONS employment estimates for the steel industry: Reference yearJobs202139,000202033,700201933,300201833,100201732,200

Energy Intensive Industries: Carbon Emissions

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero on encouraging the decarbonisation of energy intensive industries.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The Department for Business and Trade and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero are in regular dialogue over their shared aim to help industry decarbonise as the government works to deliver on its net zero ambition.

Energy Intensive Industries: Carbon Emissions

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the British Industry Supercharger Scheme on (a) carbon emissions and (b) the (i) viability and (ii) competitiveness of energy intensive industries.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: For energy intensive industries (EIIs) particularly exposed to international trade, paying the full amount of Government electricity policy costs can increase the risk of the movement of production to another country due to the different levels of decarbonisation effort (known as “carbon leakage”). It can also increase the cost of electricity relative to other energy sources making it more challenging for users to switch to less carbon-intensive production. Analysis shows that the Supercharger proposals could reduce average electricity prices for UK EIIs from around £41MWh to around £22MWh, having a direct impact on their competitiveness and reducing global carbon emissions.

Trade Advisory Groups

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 12 June 2023 to Question 188011 on Trade Advisory Groups, if she will list the dates of Trade Advisory Groups meetings that have taken place since June 2023.

Nigel Huddleston: Engagement on trade policy continues at all levels and with all our key stakeholders, to help secure the best outcomes for the UK in trade policy. Over summer 2023, convening Trade Advisory Groups have not formed part of our program of engagement. Following its creation, the Department for Business and Trade is considering how best to broaden and deepen our engagement with business and stakeholders to harness the power of the new Department.

Business: Working Hours

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the report entitled The results are in: the UK's four-day week pilot, published by Autonomy in February 2023, whether she has made an assessment of the implication for her Department's policies on working practices of the conclusions of that report.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Department routinely considers the implications of evidence from a range of sources when assessing the effectiveness of its policies on working practices. The government has no plans to implement a four-day week but has recently supported the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023. The Act makes changes to the right to request flexible working to better support employers and employees to agree flexible working arrangements that work for everyone.

Companies: Registration

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many late filing penalties Companies House issued against limited liability partnerships in 2022.

Kevin Hollinrake: Official statistics on the number of late filing penalties issued against all companies are made publicly available online by Companies House. The most recent data can be found in this link here and show that 4,750 late filing penalties were issued against limited liability partnerships in 2022 calendar year. Figures for the Financial Year 2022-2023 can be found in the Companies House Management Information report which can be accessed via the link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/companies-house-management-information-april-2022-to-march-2023

Companies: Registration

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many late filing penalties Companies House issued against private companies in 2022.

Kevin Hollinrake: Official statistics on the number of late filing penalties issued against all companies are made publicly available online by Companies House. The most recent data show that 335,909 late filing penalties were issued against private companies in the 2022 calendar year. Figures for the Financial Year 2022-2023 can be found in the Companies House Management Information report which can be accessed via the link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/companies-house-management-information-april-2022-to-march-2023

Companies: Registration

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many late filing penalties Companies House issued against public companies in 2022.

Kevin Hollinrake: Official statistics on the number of late filing penalties issued against all companies are made publicly available online by Companies House. The most recent data show that 562 late filing penalties were issued against public companies in 2022 calendar year. Figures for the Financial Year 2022-2023 can be found in the Companies House Management Information report which can be accessed via the link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/companies-house-management-information-april-2022-to-march-2023

Urban Areas

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent assessment she has made of trends in (a) the level of economic activity on the high street and (b) the rate of (i) retail and (ii) hospitality outlets closing.

Kevin Hollinrake: My Department monitors high street economic activity closely. Sales data from BDO High Street tracker[1] show that total in-store sales grew 5.1% in June 2023, driven by strong fashion sales (+7.2%), with in-store sales now 14.8% above June 2022 levels. Data from the British Retail Consortium[2] show that high-street footfall increased by 0.6% in June 2023 compared with the same month in the previous year, up from -0.5% in May. ONS data[3] show that in 2022, both the hospitality and retail sectors had a business death rate of 15%.[4] More recently, business deaths increased in hospitality (+44%) and retail (+20%) in Quarter 1 2023 compared with the previous quarter. However, business creations in both sectors also increased over the same period, with creations in the hospitality and retail sectors up 30% and 16% respectively. Government recognises the pressures faced by high street businesses, which is why the Autumn Statement 2022 announced a package of changes to business rates worth £13.6bn over the next 5 years in lower bills. This is in addition to the Energy Bills Discount Scheme. [1] https://www.bdo.co.uk/en-gb/high-street-sales-tracker/previous-reports[2] https://brc.org.uk/news/corporate-affairs/footfall-slowed-during-june-heatwave/[3]https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/activitysizeandlocation/datasets/businessdemographyquarterlyexperimentalstatisticsuk[4] Business deaths as the proportion of the total number of businesses in each sector. Business counts data taken from ONS business counts data here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/activitysizeandlocation/datasets/ukbusinessactivitysizeandlocation

Department for Business and Trade: Remote Working

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what their Departments policy is on Civil Servants in their Department working from home and receiving the London Weighting Allowance.

Nigel Huddleston: Department for Business and Trade’s workforce strategy to attract and retain diversity of talent includes the offer of flexible working arrangements. This includes hybrid working, which typically requires our people to spend on average 2-3 days in the office each week, with the remainder of their week working from home. London pay scales will apply if their office location is based in London. The department employs a small number of people who are on home working contracts, which are agreed in exceptional circumstances only.London pay scales will apply if they are living in the London area.

Department for Business and Trade

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the new Department for Business and Trade.

Nigel Huddleston: The creation of the Department of Business and Trade means there is a single economic department at the heart of government with the levers to unleash the power of British businesses, reform regulation and unlock Brexit freedoms. Since its creation, the Department has already implemented the largest ever cash increase to the National Minimum Wage; we’ve signed a historic deal on CPTPP, our biggest trade deal since Brexit; and welcomed a momentous deal for Airbus and Rolls-Royce to provide new aircraft for Air India, which is worth billions of pounds to the UK.

Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to help support working parents who have a baby in neonatal care; what recent progress she has made on implementing the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023; and if she will make a statement.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Government is committed to introducing Neonatal Care Leave and Pay as soon as possible.The entitlement will be available to all eligible parents of babies who are admitted into neonatal care up to the age of 28 days, and who have a continuous stay in neonatal care of seven days or more. The period of leave and pay available to parents will be capped at 12 weeks. Action is continuing to take place across Government to deliver this new entitlement, including preparing the necessary statutory instruments and working with HMRC to update existing systems.

Cabinet Office

Civil Servants: Social Media

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when his Department last updated guidelines on the use of social media by civil servants.

Alex Burghart: At the end of August 2023, GCS published a new guide for communicators working in the digital discipline, which includes specific references to appropriate and ethical use of social media channels: https://gcs.civilservice.gov.uk/guidance/digital-communication/#propriety. All of this guidance complements the Civil Service code, which lays out the behaviours expected of civil servants, available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-code/the-civil-service-code.

Ministry of Defence

Defence: Buildings

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in buildings on the defence estate was included in his Department's risk register.

James Cartlidge: The Ministry of Defence has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Defence: Buildings

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of buildings used by British service personnel overseas have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) present in their construction.

James Cartlidge: The Ministry of Defence has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Defence: Buildings

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of buildings on the defence estate have mitigations in place due to potential structural problems caused by reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) being present in their construction.

James Cartlidge: The Ministry of Defence has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Defence: Buildings

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has identified any buildings on his Department's estate with potential issues with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).

James Cartlidge: The Ministry of Defence has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Defence: Buildings

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department has taken to mitigate the risk of collapse of buildings on the defence estate constructed with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.

James Cartlidge: The Ministry of Defence has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Defence: Buildings

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department has taken to estimate the number of buildings on the defence estate that are constructed with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.

James Cartlidge: The Ministry of Defence has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Defence: Buildings

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many buildings on the defence estate are constructed with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.

James Cartlidge: The Ministry of Defence has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Armed Forces: Buildings

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many schools operated by the Defence Children’s Services were constructed using reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).

James Cartlidge: The Ministry of Defence has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Armed Forces: Buildings

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether any Defence Children's Services buildings will be closed because of the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).

James Cartlidge: The Ministry of Defence has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Afghanistan: Refugees

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Afghans have been accepted under Category 3 of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme since August 2021.

James Heappey: Since the end of Op PITTING and the UK's presence in Afghanistan, our ability to offer any in-country support has been severely affected as such we have not accepted anyone under Category 3 of the ARAP scheme. As a result, our priority has been to focus on those eligible for relocation via other categories of the ARAP scheme.

Navy: Repairs and Maintenance

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to this Department's Major Projects reports 2022 and 2023, for what reason the Future Maritime Support Programme is not included in the 2023 data.

James Cartlidge: The Future Maritime Support Programme reached Full Operating Capability and graduated from the Government Major Projects Portfolio during 2022-23. This programme was therefore out of scope for the Infrastructure and Projects Authority's Annual Report on Major Projects 2022-23 and the accompanying data release which reflects the portfolio as at 31 March 2023.

HMS Bulwark

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Answer of 2 September 2021 to Question 37371 on HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark, when HMS Bulwark will return to service.

James Cartlidge: HMS Bulwark remains in Devonport Dockyard undertaking a period of upkeep. She is now in a period of transition with her sistership HMS Albion. We do not disclose the fine detail of forward availability to preserve the operational security of the Fleet.

HMS Westminster

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the status of HMS Westminster is; and whether his Department has made a decision on modernisation.

James Cartlidge: HMS Westminster remains in Devonport dockyard and is part of a modernisation programme being implemented to all Type 23s that are in upkeep. We do not disclose the fine detail of forward availability forecasts to preserve the operational security of the Fleet.

Type 32 Frigates: Procurement

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the in service date is for the first Type 32 frigate.

James Cartlidge: The Type 32 programme has not yet reached the level of maturity to publish specific In-Service dates, as is consistent with a programme of this size and complexity at this stage in its development.On current plans the Type 32s are due to enter service in the 2030s.

Afghanistan: Refugees

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what guidance his Department provides on the definition of a 'Government Department' as set out in Category 4 of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy.

James Heappey: Section 16 of the online ARAP application form ('What was your Employing Department?') provides a list of the relevant Government Departments to applicants.The ARAP team works across Government to conduct checks with relevant Departments by whom the applicant was employed, contracted to or worked alongside, in partnership with or closely supported or assisted.While any UK Government Department that operated in Afghanistan could be considered a relevant Department, the following are the most applicable: Ministry of Defence, Home Office, and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Afghanistan: Refugees

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many members of ATF 444 have been given eligibility under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme since August 2022.

James Heappey: Further to my answer in Question 113300, It is not possible to provide a breakdown of these figures by job role or specific unit.Afghanistan: Refugees (docx, 22.5KB)

Army

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether it remains his Department's policy to reduce the full time strength of the British Army to 73,000 by 2025.

James Heappey: Yes. The Army is continuing to implement Future Soldier which will see a whole force of over 100,000 comprising of 73,000 Regular Service Personnel and 30,100 Army Reserve.

Low Flying: Training

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many operational hours were flown in the Welsh Military Tactical Training Area in each of the past five years.

James Heappey: The military low flying statistics are published annually at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-pattern-of-military-low-flying-across-the-uk-index. The hours of Operational Low Flying training conducted in the Welsh Military Tactical Training Area (TTA 7T) are: Financial YearOperational Low Flying Hours2016-1742017-1842018-1972019-2002020-216 The hours for Financial Years 2021-22 and 2022-23 are currently being collated and will be published later in 2023. Low flying training in the United Kingdom ensures our Armed Forces are fully competent in a wide range of flying skills and tactics before they deploy on operations.

Low Flying: Military Aircraft

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many successful claims have been processed by his Department from farmers for aborted livestock caused by low-flying military aircraft in (a) Wales and (b) each Welsh county in each of the last five years.

James Heappey: No low flying claims have been settled in relation to aborted livestock in Wales in the five-year period from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2023.

Low Flying: Wales

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish the total amount of compensation paid to Welsh farmers as a result of low-flying military activity for each of the past five years, broken down by Welsh county.

James Heappey: The total amount of compensation paid in relation to low flying claims in Wales in the five-year period from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2023 is £136, 763.95 as set out in the table below. This represents the total paid to all members of the public irrespective of occupation. Not everyone who makes a claim will state their occupation eg farmer and the MOD is not always able to verify this information.  Financial Year Welsh County CompensationFY2018-19 £27,654.70 Carmarthenshire£3,146.70 Ceredigion£1,008.00 Conwy£20,000.00 Powys£3,500.00FY2019-20 £67,369.06 Conwy£16,770.00 Monmouthshire£44,228.00 Powys£6,371.06FY2020-21 £32,810.36 Carmarthenshire£28,121.38 Conwy£4,425.00 Isle of Anglesey£193.98 Torfaen£70.00FY2021-22 £6,721.55 Carmarthenshire£1,950.22 Ceredigion£4,771.33FY2022-23 £2,208.28 Carmarthenshire£2,208.28Total £136,763.95

Department of Health and Social Care

Question

Stephen McPartland: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children were (a) on a waiting list for an assessment and (b) waiting for a diagnosis for (i) attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and (ii) Autism spectrum disorder on 1 September 2023.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Hospitals: Concrete

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospitals were built using reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Hospitals: Concrete

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether any hospitals will need to close due to reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Hospitals: Concrete

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many assessments of buildings on the NHS estate for reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) have occurred in each of the last five years.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Medical Records: Vaccination

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England's new in-house IT system that will replace the National Immunisation Management Service will include (a) a single data store holding vaccination records for all people, (b) a call and recall service that can identify and contact groups of eligible people according to age and clinical priority, (c) reporting and analysing of vaccination activity in near real time and (d) other functionality that is available through the existing system.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Medical Records: Vaccination

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the readiness of NHS England's new in-house IT system that will replace the National Immunisation Management Service.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Ian Harvey

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when Mr Ian Harvey, the former medical director at the Countess of Chester Hospital, was last employed (a) within the NHS and (b) an organisation overseen by his Department.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Care Homes and Hospitals: Concrete

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his predecessor (a) received requests from and (b) made representations to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to discuss the (i) presence and (ii) potential cost implications of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) within NHS Hospitals and care homes between 13 February 2020 and 5 July 2022.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS: Concrete

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what safety checks his Department is recommending that the NHS carry out in Barnet on reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Hospices: Staff

Peter Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support people employed in the hospice sector.

Peter Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support people employed in the hospice sector as part of the NHS Workforce Plan.

Peter Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve (a) recruitment and (b) retention in the hospice sector.

Helen Whately: Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning palliative and end of life care services, including from the hospice sector, that meet the needs of their local populations. Most hospices are independent charitable organisations that receive some statutory funding from ICBs. Hospices remain free to develop and adapt their own terms and conditions of employment.The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP), published on 30 June 2023, sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. Commitments in the LTWP to increase the healthcare workforce will benefit a range of providers, including those that deliver palliative and end of life care services.

Members: Correspondence

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the written correspondence of 10 July 2023 from the hon. Member for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport regarding social enterprises and the NHS pay offer.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Dementia: Erith and Thamesmead

Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve the dementia diagnosis rate in Erith and Thamesmead constituency.

Helen Whately: In December 2022, the mental health objectives for 2023/24 were included in National Health Service priorities and planning guidance, refreshing the commitment to achieve the national ambition of a 66.7% diagnosis rate. This reinforces the importance of dementia as a key priority for NHS England and provides a clear direction for integrated care boards to support delivery of timely diagnoses within systems.The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Dementia Intelligence Network has been commissioned by NHS England to develop a resource to support investigation of the underlying variation in dementia diagnosis rates. The aim of this work is to provide context for variation and enable targeted investigation and provision of support at a local level to enhance diagnosis rates. The tool has been released and is available via the NHS Futures Collaboration platform.

Integrated Care Boards: Disclosure of Information

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will issue guidance to Integrated Care Boards on transparency around commissioning decisions including (a) which commissioning decisions and details thereof should be published and (b) which commissioning decisions and details thereof should be considered commercially sensitive for purposes of freedom of Information requests.

Helen Whately: The Department and NHS England are working to reform the rules on procurement for healthcare services, otherwise known as the ‘Provider Selection Regime’, including for transparency surrounding decisions, and will provide an update on this in due course. Right now, integrated care boards (ICBs) must follow the current rules on transparency in procurement as set out in the Procurement, Patient Choice, and Competition Regulations (PPCCR) 2013 (No. 2) and the Public Contract Regulations (PCR) 2015.ICBs are responsible for ensuring that commercially sensitive information is handled appropriately and in line with the law.

Hospitals: Admissions

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of patients not being hospitalised at the nearest hospital on their (a) well-being and (b) recovery.

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of patients not being hospitalised at the nearest hospital on the (a) well-being and (b) finances of their families; and whether his Department plans to localise specialist services.

Helen Whately: The Department has not made a specific assessment on the impact on patients of where they are hospitalised. There are well documented benefits for patients of being treated in specialist centres of excellence, for instance, for stroke care.NHS England and integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning and ensuring healthcare needs of local communities are met.If a patient is referred to hospital or other National Health Service premises for specialist NHS treatment or diagnostic tests, eligible patients can claim a refund of reasonable travel costs under the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme (HTCS).

Diabetes

Matt Vickers: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help tackle changes in rates of type 2 diabetes.

Will Quince: The National Health Service has set up T2Day: Type 2 Diabetes in the Young, a programme of intensive and targeted care for people aged 18 to 39 years, which offers tailored health checks and support with diabetes management. This will support those individuals to lead healthier lives and, in some cases, put their type 2 diabetes into remission.In addition, the existing NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme supports those identified at high risk of type 2 diabetes to reduce their risk. Latest figures in February 2023 show a 20% reduction in risk for those who are referred to the programme compared to those who are not.

Cancer: Greater Manchester

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average wait time is for patients seeking treatment for cancer in (a) Stockport constituency, (b) Stockport borough and (c) Greater Manchester.

Will Quince: The information is not held in the format requested. Average waiting times is not collected by constituency level.

Health Services: Foreign Nationals

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the potential cost to the public purse of foreign nationals accessing NHS services in each of the last five years.

Will Quince: This information is not collected in the format requested.The Department publishes data on the income recognised from overseas visitors, who may or may not be foreign nationals, accessing the National Health Service in its annual reports and accounts, as well as the NHS consolidated provider accounts.The information from the annual accounts is shown in the below table. 2017/182018/192019/202020/212021/22Income Recognised (£m)8791936167 The annual reports and accounts are available at the following links:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1135637/dhsc-annual-report-and-accounts-2021-2022_web-accessible.pdfhttps://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/consolidated-provider-accounts-21-22-final.pdf

Contraceptives

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made a comparative assessment between GP prescribing rates for long-acting reversible contraception and the fees paid to general practice to fit LARC per (a) integrated care system and (b) local authority.

Neil O'Brien: No assessment has been made. Integrated care boards may commission general practitioners (GPs) to offer long-acting reversible contraception as an enhanced service to their local population, in addition to the contraception service provided through the GP contract.

Drag Queen Story Hour UK

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England has provided money to Drag Queen Story Hour UK since 2019.

Will Quince: NHS England has not provided money to Drag Queen Story Hour UK since 2019.

Dental Services

Nadia Whittome: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure patients can access timely NHS dental treatment.

Neil O'Brien: Our plan for dentistry, to be published shortly, will build upon the first package of reforms agreed in July 2022, which included changes to banding and the introduction of a minimum Units of Dental Activity value. Our plan will include addressing how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients; and how we make National Health Service work more attractive to ensure NHS dentists are incentivised to deliver more NHS care.It is now a legal requirement for dentists to update their information on the NHS website to improve information available to patients. The regulations came into effect in November 2022. Patients who are struggling to find a local dentist can contact NHS England’s Customer Contact Centre for assistance or contact NHS 111 if seeking urgent care.The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published on 30 June 2023, sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. These include a 40% increase to dentistry undergraduate training places by 2031/32. To support this ambition, we will expand places by 24% by 2028/29, taking the overall number that year to 1,000 places.

Nutrition: Health Education

Nadia Whittome: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that (a) all food provided through the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme is sourced at the highest quality and (b) healthy eating is promoted more widely in schools.

Neil O'Brien: Suppliers of fruit and vegetables to the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme are required to adhere to all elements of law in the United Kingdom. They are required to supply produce which meets Government fresh fruit and vegetable marketing standards, and the standards set for the Red Tractor food assurance scheme for UK-sourced foods, or Globalgap, the international equivalent for fruit and vegetables sourced from outside the UK. Schools are encouraged to use the scheme as an opportunity to educate children about fruit and vegetables and to encourage the consumption of a healthy, balanced diet.The standards for school food are set out in the requirement for School Food Regulations 2014 and are to ensure that schools provide children with healthy food and drink options, and to make sure that children get the energy and nutrition they need across the school day. The Government encourages all schools to promote healthy eating and provide healthy, tasty, and nutritious food and drink. Compliance with the School Food Standards is mandatory for all maintained schools, academies, and free schools.The School Food Standards regulate the food and drink provided at both lunchtime and at other times of the school day, including, for example, breakfast clubs, tuck shops, mid-morning break, vending and after school clubs.

Disabled Facilities Grants

Imran Hussain: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the White Paper entitled People at the Heart of Care, published in December 2021, what his Department's timescales are for beginning the consultation on increasing the Disabled Facilities Grant cap.

Helen Whately: As with all aspects of the Disabled Facilities Grant, the Government will continue to keep the upper limit under review. Local areas also already have discretion to increase the cap on the grant on a case-by-case basis or in line with a locally published housing assistance policy.

Smoking: Health Services

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of streamlining the process for making packaging changes on licensed smoking cessation products.

Neil O'Brien: No assessment has been made.

General Practitioners: Allergies

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the (a) adequacy and (b) availability of allergy training for GPs.

Neil O'Brien: We have made no assessment. General practitioners (GPs) are responsible for ensuring their own clinical knowledge remains up-to-date and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This activity should include taking account of new research and developments in guidance, such as that produced by the National Institute for Care Excellence, to ensure that they can continue to provide high-quality care to all patients.All UK registered doctors are expected to meet the professional standards set out in the General Medical Council’s (GMC’s) Good Medical Practice. In 2012, the GMC introduced revalidation which supports doctors in regularly reflecting on how they can develop or improve their practice. This gives patients confidence doctors are up to date with their practice and promotes improved quality of care by driving improvements in clinical governance.The training curricula for postgraduate trainee doctors is set by the relevant medical Royal College and has to meet the standards set by the GMC. The Royal College of General Practitioners has developed an allergy e-learning online resource to support their continuing professional development which aims to educate GPs about the various presentations of allergic disease.

Prescriptions: Fees and Charges

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has taken steps to ensure that pharmacists do not accidentally indicate that a patient is eligible for a waiver on prescription payments.

Neil O'Brien: Real Time Exemption Checking (RTEC) is in operation across the majority of community pharmacies in England. This enables pharmacies to confirm a person’s eligibility for free National Health Service prescriptions through real-time checks of NHS and Department for Work and Pensions data, prior to dispensing their prescription items. Where RTEC is in place and finds a valid exemption for a patient, they are not required to sign a patient declaration confirming their exemption.In cases where RTEC is not used and a patient makes a declaration that they are exempt from paying an NHS prescription charge, pharmacy staff must ask them to sign a declaration and produce evidence. Pharmacies must advise the person claiming an exemption, where evidence is required but not provided, that the NHS undertakes checks to verify that such persons are eligible for free prescriptions. This is a legislative requirement of a pharmacist’s terms of service. It should be noted that pharmacists are instructed to dispense prescriptions whether or not evidence is seen.

Public Health

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to help ensure that public health organisations make the (a) the wellbeing and health of patients and (b) public interest their first priorities.

Neil O'Brien: The Government is committed to prioritising the public interest, and the health and wellbeing of patients. As per the 2006 Health Act, the Secretary of State is responsible for protecting the public from disease or other dangers to health, and for improving the health of the population.Public health and health protection functions sit with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). OHID drives forward efforts to prevent ill health, particularly in the places and communities where there are the most significant disparities. UKHSA prepares for and responds to infectious diseases, and environmental hazards, to keep all our communities safe, save lives and protect livelihoods.The National Health Service also has a part to play in delivering population health outcomes. In responding to the Hewitt Review, the Government has reiterated its support for systems, and the unique opportunity they present to make meaningful long-term improvements to populations’ health and wellbeing.

Electronic Cigarettes: Children

Kirsten Oswald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number and proportion of people under the age of 18 who vape.

Neil O'Brien: Data on vaping is available at England level for those aged 11 to 15 through the 'NHS Smoking, Drinking and Drug use among Young People in England' publication. Current vaping prevalence among those aged 11 to 15 was 9% in 2021.ASH survey data on youth vaping from 2023 shows a similar trend, with 7.6% of children aged 11 to 17 currently vaping. More information on this survey is available at the following link: https://ash.org.uk/resources/view/use-of-e-cigarettes-among-young-people-in-great-britain

Lung Diseases: Screening

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason lung health checks are not available for people over the age of 74 years who are (a) ex-smokers, (b) smokers and (c) at risk due to their previous work environment.

Neil O'Brien: The Targeted Lung Health Checks (TLHC) are currently aimed at people aged 55 to 74 who have ever smoked. Medical research has provided evidence to show the benefits of carrying out lung health checks on this age group. There is currently not enough evidence to show that lung screening would be beneficial for those aged 75 and above and who are also ex-smokers, smokers or potentially at risk from occupational exposure. There are also concerns that the risks from treatment and other medical conditions would potentially outweigh the benefits of screening those aged 75 and above.People aged 75 and above who are experiencing worrying respiratory symptoms should speak to their GP.

Healthy Start Scheme

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to make available audited data on the cost of operating the Healthy Start scheme in the 2022/23 financial year.

Neil O'Brien: Audited financial information for the Department is due to be published in November 2023 as part of the Annual Review of Accounts (ARA). Specific information related to the costs of the Healthy Start scheme may not be explicit within the ARA due to the size of the programme but will be available from that point.

Healthy Start Scheme

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 13 June 2023 to Question 188559 on Healthy Start Scheme, for what reason Departmental forecasts on numbers of beneficiaries and uptake of the Healthy Start scheme are not available.

Neil O'Brien: While the Department forecasts the numbers of beneficiaries on the Healthy Start scheme, the forecasts are updated frequently and are not centrally validated. As a result, these internal forecasts are not released in the public domain.

Cervical Cancer: Screening

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to make cervical smear tests more accessible for women with (a) newborn babies and (b) young children.

Will Quince: The cervical screening programme uses the HPV test not the cervical smear test. This has been in place since late 2019 and detects the HPV virus which causes 99.7% of cervical cancers.We are committed to improving the uptake of the cervical screening programme, in line with the long term plan aim of detecting more people at risk of developing cervical cancer and facilitating their treatment to prevent cancer developing.Local NHS services have a duty to ensure that their services are as accessible as possible for their local populations and that any appropriate support is in place, depending on individual need.We are working to test the effectiveness of HPV self-sampling as a primary cervical screening option. The findings from this evaluation will be used to inform a UK National Screening Committee recommendation and it is expected that self-sampling could lead to an increase in uptake as it will reduce some of the barriers that prevent people from attending for screening.

Doctors: Recruitment

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of (a) paid sabbaticals, (b) guaranteed study leave and (c) reform of NHS deaneries on the (i) recruitment and (ii) retention of NHS doctors.

Will Quince: The Department has not made any assessment of the potential merits of paid sabbaticals, guaranteed study leave or reform of NHS deaneries on the recruitment and retention of NHS doctors.Individual NHS employers are responsible for developing their own policy relating to sabbaticals. Policies are designed to meet the employers’ specific recruitment and retention needs.Arrangements relating to study leave are detailed in the national terms and conditions of employment for NHS doctors. Requests for study leave will normally be granted, subject to the need to maintain NHS services.NHS deaneries deliver national recruitment to training posts across the four nations but do not run recruitment for employment and do not have responsibility for retention.

Department of Health and Social Care: Domestic Visits

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if they will take steps to visit Solihull constituency in 2023.

Will Quince: Ministers regularly consider visits to health and care settings across the country. Any plans to visit specific locations will be notified to hon. Members in advance.

Bootham Park Hospital

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to give priority to a public sector consortium to develop the Bootham Park Hospital site.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of reducing the maintenance costs for Bootham Park Hospital by selling the building at a reduced price to a public sector consortium.

Will Quince: All proposals, including any from public sector organisations, will be evaluated as part of the marketing process. However, the owner of the site, NHS Property Services, has a duty in accordance with requirements set out in HM Treasury guidance on Managing Public Money to achieve the best value for the site and is currently actively marketing the property with the benefit of planning permission for conversion to a residential care home following the withdrawal of the previous purchasers. This planning permission also includes important safeguards to allow the local community to continue to access the site.

Department of Health and Social Care: Written Questions

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps their Department is taking to improve response times to written parliamentary questions.

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data their Department holds on the average response time to written parliamentary questions in the last six months; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.

Will Quince: The Department has answered 4,509 written parliamentary questions from both the House of Commons and the House of Lords in the six-month period covering 1 March 2023 to 31 August 2023. Out of that number, the Department answered 3,555 within the required timeframes.The Department has been embarking on an internal recovery programme to improve PQ performance, and in the most recent sitting month, July 2023, the Department achieved an on-time answering rate of 90.4%, exceeding our target set by Parliament.

Cancer: Health Services

Paul Bristow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support is available specifically for people with cancer who experience long waits for treatment.

Will Quince: The Government is working with NHS England to reduce waiting times for cancer treatments and to ensure support is available for those that are wating for treatment. The Government and the National Health Service are committed to ensuring that all cancer patients get access to a Holistic Needs Assessment and Personalised Care Interventions. These will ensure care focuses on what matters most to each person, whilst empowering them to self-manage where appropriate and providing a route back into the system if they notice any worrying changes or need to seek help. NHS England is providing over £390 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances in each of the next two years to support the delivery of priorities in cancer, including working to ensure that every person receives personalised care and support from cancer diagnosis onwards.The NHS is supporting adults with the NHS Talking Therapies which provides evidence-based mental health services for people with anxiety and depression. The pathway has been identified as a priority to support the integration of mental and physical health services for people with long-term conditions such as cancer.

Cancer: Health Services

Paul Bristow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to put in place additional measures to tackle cancer treatment waiting times.

Will Quince: Reducing cancer treatment waiting times is already a priority for this Government. The Department is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlogs in elective care. The Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer diagnosis and treatment activity.In the 2023/24 Operational Planning Guidance, NHS England announced it is providing over £390 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances in each of the next two years to support delivery of the strategy and the operational priorities for cancer which includes increasing and prioritising diagnostic and treatment capacity for cancer.Additionally, the Government recently published the Major Conditions Strategy Case for Change and Our Strategic Framework on 14 August which sets out our approach to making the choices over the next five years that will deliver the most value in facing the health challenges of today and of the decades ahead, including for cancer.NHS England continues to actively support those trusts requiring the greatest help to cut cancer waiting lists and treatment and the Department is working with NHS England to make further improvements.

Primary Health Care: Greater London

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of assaults against LGBTQ+ staff members in primary care settings in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London in the last 12 months.

Will Quince: We do not currently have a national mechanism to capture and report incidents of assaults against LGBQT+ staff members in primary care settings. Data is held at a local level. At a national level, data on self-reported violent incidents is gathered from the 2022 NHS Staff Survey.NHS England has commissioned a number of data insight workstreams to better understand the current landscape of statistics, data reporting and associated challenges. This includes a national review of all available data and intelligence sources and an analysis of the costs of violence to the health care system in England and a review of the impact on the safety and wellbeing of NHS staff.

Neurology: Greater London

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time was for (a) neurology services and (b) neurosurgery in (i) Enfield North constituency, (ii) the London Borough of Enfield and (iii) London in each year since 2012.

Will Quince: The information requested is not held centrally at constituency level.The following table shows the average (median) waiting time in weeks for incomplete patient pathways at the end of March for each year within the London commissioning region for the neurology and neurosurgery treatment functions.DateNeurology Services average wait time (weeks)Neurosurgery average wait time (weeks)March 20145.88.0March 20155.77.6March 20166.89.0March 20177.27.5March 20187.37.6March 20197.77.7March 20209.910.3March 20217.813.0March 202210.915.8March 202315.317.7Source: Published NHSE Referral to Treatment waiting times statisticsNote: Average incomplete waiting times were not published prior to 2013/14.

Nurses: Recruitment and Vetting

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to improve procedures for (a) hiring and (b) vetting nursing staff.

Will Quince: National Health Service trusts are required to have robust and effective policies and processes aligned to employment law and good human resources practice when considering hiring staff for any NHS position, including nursing positions. Employers are required to carry out a range of vetting requirements as part of recruitment and ongoing employment checks in compliance with the NHS Employment Check Standards. These standards are aimed at supporting employers to ensure individuals are of sound character and have the appropriate qualifications, skills, and competency to properly and safely perform the tasks required of them. Further information about employment standard and regulation is available at the following link:www.nhsemployers.org/recruitment/employment-standards-and-regulation

NHS: Disclosure of Information

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of implementing mandatory reporting mechanisms for staff who suspect criminal or negligent behaviour.

Will Quince: No assessment has been made.Healthcare staff have a professional duty, in accordance with the guidance of their respective regulatory bodies, to act if they have concerns that a colleague may not be fit to practise, or that patient safety may be put at risk. The Government supports the right of staff working in the National Health Service to speak up and has put in place measures to support staff to raise a concern, including legal protections for whistle-blowers.

Lung Diseases

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to reduce respiratory health inequalities.

Will Quince: The NHS Long Term Plan made a commitment to tackling health inequalities and earlier intervention to detect and treat respiratory disease. NHS England has set out Core20PLUS5, a national approach to reduce healthcare inequalities at both national and system level. The approach defines a target population (the ‘Core20PLUS’) and identifies ‘5’ focus clinical areas requiring accelerated improvement.The approach will include a focus on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease driving up uptake of COVID-19, flu and pneumonia vaccines to reduce exacerbations of the disease and to reduce emergency hospital admissions due to those exacerbations, as well as smoking cessation given the strong social gradient in smoking rates that contributes to inequalities in respiratory disease and other major causes of death.

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Health Services

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department provides for patients with lupus.

Will Quince: In England, general rheumatology services, which support people with a range of conditions, including lupus, are locally commissioned by integrated care boards which are best placed to make decisions according to local need.Specialised rheumatology services are commissioned nationally by NHS England. The service specification for specialised rheumatology services defines the standards of care expected from organisations funded by NHS England to provide specialised care. The service specification is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/a13-spec-rheumatology.pdf

Postural Tachycardia Syndrome: Medical Treatments

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the impact of withdrawing the experimental treatment for postural tachycardia syndrome trialled at York Hospital on patients with that condition.

Will Quince: York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has undertaken a comprehensive review of the evidence for saline fluid infusions for the treatment of patients with symptoms of postural tachycardia syndrome. The review found that there is not enough published evidence that this treatment provides sufficient benefit for patients to continue long-term intravenous treatment. The trust has therefore taken a decision to no longer provide this treatment, which is consistent with position of other National Health Service hospital providers.No national assessment of the trust’s decision has been made by NHS England.

Prescriptions: Fines

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many penalty charge notices for wrongly claimed prescriptions were issued in the last year.

Will Quince: From September 2022 to August 2023, the NHS Business Services Authority issued 557,307 penalty charge notices for wrongly claimed free prescriptions.

NHS: Drugs

Chris Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's document entitled Final impact assessment: statutory scheme to control costs of branded health service medicines, published in March 2020, whether his Department plans to update that impact assessment using data from the Life Sciences Competitiveness Indicators 2023.

Will Quince: The Government publishes new impact assessments each time the statutory scheme is updated. Further impact assessments were published in respect of updates made to the statutory scheme in 2022 and 2023.The Government is currently consulting on updates to the statutory scheme to make sure that the scheme can continue to meet its objectives from 2024 onwards. A consultation stage impact assessment of the proposed updates has been published, and is available at the following link:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1179564/impact-assessment-review-scheme-cost-branded-medicines-updated-21-august-2023.pdfAn updated impact assessment will be published alongside the response to the consultation and will include the updated Competitiveness Indicators in the evidence base.

Mental Illness: Medical Treatments

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of funding further research into the use of MRI scans for treatment of (a) depression and (b) other mental health disorders.

Will Quince: The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR has several supported studies on the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans for depression and other mental health disorders, including a Functional MRI investigation of the neural mechanisms of Emotional Cognitive Bias Modification as an adjunct therapy to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in depression. It is not usual practise for the NIHR to ring fence funds for potential topics or conditions. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including the use of MRI scans for the treatment of depression and other mental health disorders.

Prostate Cancer: Sanitary Protection

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to (a) provide further support for people with prostate cancer and (b) increase provision of public sanitary products for people with prostate cancer.

Will Quince: The Department currently has no plans to provide further additional support as the NHS Long Term Plan, published in January 2019, states that, where appropriate, every person diagnosed with cancer will have access to personalised care, including needs assessment, a care plan and health and wellbeing information and support. This includes provision of end of treatment summaries, empowering people to manage their care and the impact of their cancer.The Department currently has no plans to increase provision of public sanitary products for people with prostate cancer. Local authorities are responsible for the maintenance and repair of public toilets including ensuring that they are managed in accordance with the relevant legislation.

Dermatitis: Health Services

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) people with eczema are (i) evaluated and (ii) treated by specialists and (b) patient-initiated follow-ups are adopted across the health system.

Will Quince: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) publishes a range of guidance on atopic dermatitis, also known as eczema, and other skin conditions for commissioners and healthcare professionals, with recommendations for diagnosis and referral. The guideline for atopic dermatitis in children aged under 12 years is being updated with draft recommendations published in June 2023. NHS England has made a referral to NICE to develop new guidance on atopic dermatitis in adults. Whilst NICE guidelines are not mandatory, the Government would expect patients presenting with atopic dermatitis symptoms to be managed according to clinical need and in line with all current guidance.

Dermatitis

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many eczema cases were diagnosed in 2022.

Will Quince: The information is not collected in the format requested.

NHS: Staff

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to provide skills training to help meet (a) medium- and (b) long-term targets for biomedical scientists in the NHS.

Will Quince: As set out in the recently published NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan, we aim to increase training places for healthcare scientists, including biomedical scientists, by 13% to more than 850 places by 2028/29, putting us on the path to increase training places by more than 30% to over 1,000 places by 2031/32.Apprenticeship routes for healthcare scientists are also being made available, with 20% of training places delivered via an apprenticeship route by 2028/29, supporting an ambition to have 40% of healthcare scientists starting their training via an apprenticeship by 2031/32.The Government is backing the plan with over £2.4 billion over the next five years.

Public Health: Trade Agreements

John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of conducting health impact assessments of the public health impacts of new free trade agreements; and if he will make an impact assessment of the potential impact of accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership on public health.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care does not carry out specific health impact assessments for Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Section 42 of the Agriculture Act 2020 commits the Government to produce a report which examines new FTAs in the context of their impact on domestic statutory protections in the United Kingdom, including the impact on human health. This report must be laid in Parliament as part of the scrutiny process. This process will apply to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Agreement. The “Section 42 report”, as it is known, is led by the Department for Business and Trade, and is drafted in consultation with other Government departments, including the Department of Health and Social Care.

Suicide

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to continue the local funding for suicide prevention which was previously allocated through the NHS Long Term Plan 2019.

Maria Caulfield: The NHS Long Term Plan commits to investing £57 million in suicide prevention by March 2024 through the NHS Long Term Plan. Through this, all areas of the country are seeing investment to support local suicide prevention plans and the development of suicide bereavement services. Funding beyond 2024/25 is subject to future Spending Reviews, and we will consider further opportunities to build upon this investment for suicide prevention.On 25 August 2023, the Government launched the Suicide Prevention Grant Fund to support suicide prevention activities delivered in England by voluntary, community or social enterprise (VCSE) organisations to March 2025. The fund will support non-profit organisations to meet the increased demand seen in recent years and support a range of diverse and innovative activity that can prevent suicides, both at a national and community level.As the Chancellor announced in the Spring Budget 2023, we will provide an extra £10 million over the next two years to the VCSE sector through a Suicide Prevention VCSE Grant Fund, which will support them to sustain their services, help meet increased demand for support, prevent suicides and stem the flow into crisis services.

Health Services: Women

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made a recent comparative assessment of the UK rate of (a) breast and cervical cancer screenings, (b) access to Hormone replacement therapy, (c) maternal mortality, (d) women's life expectancy, (e) women's confidence in healthcare provision and (f) time to diagnose (i) endometriosis and (ii) polycystic ovary syndrome compared with similar countries.

Maria Caulfield: No specific assessments have been made.

Cancer: Children

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing increased financial support for child cancer patients and their families.

Will Quince: The Department has not made an assessment as it is the responsibility of National Health Service providers to ensure that the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme (HTCS) is appropriately utilised.If a patient, including a child cancer patient, is referred to hospital or other NHS premises for specialist NHS treatment or diagnostic tests by a primary care professional, they may be able to claim a refund of reasonable travel costs under the HTCS. Information regarding who is eligible for a refund as part of this scheme is available at the following link: https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/help-with-health-costs/healthcare-travel-costs-scheme-htcs/ Patients who do not qualify for the HTCS and are on low incomes may be able to claim the costs from the Department for Work and Pensions through the Universal Credit or Personal Independence Payment schemes.

Ministry of Justice

Domestic Abuse

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Recommendation 10 of the report from the Domestic Abuse Commissioner entitled The Family Court and domestic abuse: achieving cultural change, published in July 2023, if he will consult (a) the Domestic Abuse Commissioner's office, (b) relevant regulatory bodies, (c) NHS England, (d) NHS Wales and (e) representatives of the specialist children’s sector to develop a stricter definition of psychologist.

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Recommendation 9 of the report from the Domestic Abuse Commissioner entitled The Family Court and domestic abuse: achieving cultural change, published in July 2023, if he will make it his Department's policy to remove the means test for legal aid for all victims and survivors of domestic abuse going through private family law proceedings.

Mike Freer: The Government received the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s report “The Family Court and domestic abuse: achieving cultural change” on 18 July. We are considering the recommendations made and will publish a full response to the report shortly.

Courts: Fees and Charges

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the equity of the level of the fee charged to victims to obtain court transcripts of a trial in which they were a victim.

Mike Freer: Accessing transcripts from proceedings in serious criminal cases is not only a fundamental right of victims but is also essential for maintaining transparency and accountability within the justice system. That is why we have provided the required technology to the Crown Courts to enable transcription of different parts of the hearing from the recordings made in all proceedings.Providing free transcripts of the recordings made during hearings to all victims in criminal proceedings would incur in significant cost. Nevertheless, we have made sure that bereaved family members of victims of homicide and death by dangerous driving, can get a copy of the judicial sentencing remarks paid for by the public purse.In certain serious criminal cases, a copy of the judicial sentencing remarks can be made available to the public free of charge at the judge’s discretion. Additionally, under the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime, victims in all criminal proceedings are entitled to be told the sentence the offender received, including a short explanation about the meaning and effect of the sentence, by the Witness Care Unit, which is operated by the police. If a victim has any questions about the sentence which the Witness Care Unit are unable to answer, they are entitled to be referred to the Crown Prosecution Service, who will answer any questions which the Witness Care Unit is not able to answer.

Courts and Tribunals: Fees and Charges

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions he has held with HM Courts and Tribunals Service on the level of fees charged to victims to obtain a transcript of a trial in which they were a vicitm.

Mike Freer: The Ministry of Justice and HM Courts and Tribunals Service continue to seek ways to reduce the fees that victims are required to pay to obtain transcripts in criminal proceedings. In particular, we are exploring how technology can be used to reduce the costs of transcription, with a view to passing on the savings to parties.

Prisons: Buildings

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisons have had safety assessments for reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in each of the last five years.

Damian Hinds: This information is not held centrally. The professional advice from experts on reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) has evolved over time, from advice in the 1990s that RAAC did not pose a safety hazard to more recent advice on identifying and assessing structural adequacy. The Government's approach throughout has been to follow the best technical advice. Departments have been surveying properties and depending on the assessment of the RAAC, decided to either continue to monitor the structure, reinforce it, or replace it. This is in line with the approach recommended by the Institution of Structural Engineers.

Courts and Prisons: Buildings

Mr Alistair Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the extent of the use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in (a) courts and (b) prisons.

Damian Hinds: The professional advice from experts on Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) has evolved over time, from advice in the 1990s that RAAC did not pose a safety hazard to more recent advice on identifying and assessing structural adequacy. The Government's approach throughout has been to follow the best technical advice. Departments have been surveying properties and depending on the assessment of the RAAC, decided to either continue to monitor the structure, reinforce it, or replace it. This is in line with the approach recommended by the Institution of Structural EngineersIn line with that expert driven approach, we have been working for several months to identify where we have the potential for RAAC to be present across the HMPPS estate. We are commissioning further surveys and assessments across a number of buildings to assess as soon as possible whether RAAC is present and what further action may be required. Mitigation and action plans from those assets containing RAAC will then be put in place.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Local Broadcasting: Radio

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to Government grants statistics 2020 to 2021, published on 31 March 2022, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Radio Policy 2021 Grant.

Sir John Whittingdale: The Radio Policy 2021 Grant was a temporary scheme to help smaller commercial stations deal with the significant fall in revenues experienced due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on advertising and sponsorship income. The scheme enabled those stations that qualified to defray a portion of their transmission costs, and therefore to continue to broadcast.The department sets objectives for grant funding when designing the grant scheme and allocates funding in accordance with those objectives. The department and its public bodies deliver all grant funding in line with the Government Functional Standard GovS 015: Grants.

Audio Content Fund

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to Government grants statistics 2020 to 2021, published on 31 March 2022, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Audio Content Fund 2021.

Sir John Whittingdale: The Audio Content Fund pilot, which operated between April 2019 and April 2022, supported independent audio producers to provide high quality public service content for commercial and community radio stations across the UK. In 2020/21, its core funding was supplemented by two additional rounds to help fund further content to support the public during the coronavirus pandemic.The department sets objectives for grant funding when designing the grant scheme and allocates funding in accordance with those objectives.A full independent evaluation of the impacts of the Audio Content Fund, including these additional rounds, was published in February 2023.

Local Broadcasting: Radio

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to Government grants statistics 2020 to 2021, published on 31 March 2022, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Community Radio 2021 Fund

Sir John Whittingdale: The Community Radio Fund is an annual grant scheme, funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and administered by Ofcom, into which community radio stations across the UK can bid for funding for projects that help support the sector’s development. In 2020/21, the Fund’s core funding was supplemented by an additional sum to support efforts by community radio stations in helping address loneliness during the coronavirus pandemic.The department sets objectives for grant funding when designing the grant scheme and allocates funding in accordance with those objectives.An independent report evaluating the impact which CRF funding has had on community radio stations was published in March 2022.

Dormant Assets Scheme

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how her Department has distributed dormant assets funding in (a) 2022 and (b) 2023.

Stuart Andrew: The Secretary of State issues policy directions to The National Lottery Community Fund for the English portion of dormant assets funds, which can currently be spent on three causes: youth, financial inclusion, or social investment. His Majesty’s Government has recently announced that community wealth funds will become the fourth cause for dormant assets funding in England.In 2022–23, the Secretary of State issued policy directions that allocated a total of £76 million to help tackle cost of living pressures, including:£23 million to Access – the Foundation for Social Investment;£8 million to Big Society Capital;£45 million to Fair4All Finance; andUp to £500,000 per year to enable The Oversight Trust – Assets for the Common Good to fulfil its governance role.These allocations included support for initiatives like a £20 million Energy Resilience Scheme to help charities and social enterprises invest in energy efficient solutions, and £15 million to scale the No Interest Loan Scheme to reach 69,000 more people facing problem debt.

Cricket: Equality

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help implement the recommendations in the report of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket entitled Holding up a mirror to cricket.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket report Holding Up A Mirror To Cricket, what recent discussions her Department has had with (a) the ECB and (b) the MCC on that report's findings.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket report Holding Up A Mirror To Cricket, if her Department will discuss recommendation 18 of that report with the MCC.

Stuart Andrew: The government is clear that there is absolutely no place for racism, discrimination, bullying or harassment in sport or society. It is for the England and Wales Cricket Board to implement recommendations from the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket’s report, and we welcome their commitment to bring forward a plan to tackle these serious issues, which must be addressed fully. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is having regular conversations with the ECB to discuss what actions they will take in response.The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has not had any direct conversations with Marylebone Cricket Club.

Loneliness

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help support local councils to tackle loneliness.

Stuart Andrew: Many people experience loneliness and social isolation, and across government, we’re committed to building a more connected society, where everyone is able to build meaningful relationships. Having strong social relationships play an important role in our physical and mental wellbeing, and local councils, health systems and voluntary and community sector organisations all have an important role to play in tackling loneliness. Local services can achieve better outcomes in tackling loneliness by working together and building a shared understanding of the local community’s needs and assets.The government is working with partners to support local areas to share and learn from best practice examples. This includes working with the Local Government Association to provide guidance on how local councils can tackle loneliness, and providing a space for organisations to share resources on the Tackling Loneliness Hub. Furthermore, through the delivery and evaluation of the £30 million Know Your Neighbourhood Fund, local authorities and community organisations in high deprivation areas will have access to evidence on what works to increase regular volunteering and reduce chronic loneliness.

Gambling

Mary Glindon: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of increasing limits on (a) stakes and (b) prizes for the land-based gambling industry.

Stuart Andrew: Our gambling white paper set out the government’s plans for modernising the regulation of gambling in Great Britain. This included a number of measures to adjust outdated and overly restrictive rules to enable the land-based sectors to thrive sustainably. The reforms strike a balance between respecting the choices of people who gamble safely, and ensuring those that are at risk of gambling harm and addiction are protected and safeguarded.The white paper proposed a raft of changes which will benefit the land-based sector, including a reform of outdated restrictions on gaming machine supply and modernisation of payment methods across the land-based sector. Since publishing the white paper, ministers and officials have engaged with representatives across the land-based sector to understand a range of issues of interest, including stakes and prizes.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport: Labour Turnover

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what information their Department holds on the level of staff retention; and what steps they are taking to improve staff retention.

Sir John Whittingdale: The department does not measure staff retention.Those leaving the organisation undertake an exit interview on a voluntary basis. The department uses the outputs of these to inform the actions it takes around staff retention, including:Improving the diversity of the organisation - we are publishing revised guidance for applicants and hiring managers to increase the diversity of our hires, and intend to increase the amount of outreach work we do to attract the widest possible applicant pool.Making our organisation more inclusive - we are focussing our efforts on areas such as social mobility, and inclusive leadership.Improving the capability of our line managers - particularly around better coaching for career development.

Department for Education

Childcare: East of England

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of (a) nurseries and (b) childminders that closed in the East of England in the 2022-23 financial year; and how many childcare places became unavailable as a result of those closures.

David Johnston: This is a matter for His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to the hon. Member and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Special Educational Needs

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the (a) readability and (b) accessibility to schools of SEND Information Reports.

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the (a) adequacy of guidance to schools on drafting SEND Information Reports and (b) accessibility of those reports for (i) parents with SEND, (ii) parents for whom English is a second language and (iii) other parents.

David Johnston: The requirement for all schools to publish Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Information Reports was introduced in the Children and Families Act 2014. This means that every school must publish details of its provision for pupils with SEND, and review these details annually.In the department’s SEND Improvement Plan, published in March 2023, we committed to explore whether the expectations about the contents of the SEND Information Report could be developed further to improve transparency. This will include how to improve accessibility.

Tech She Can

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has (a) held meetings and (b) exchanged communications with the TechSheCan charity in the last 12 months.

Nick Gibb: Officials from the Department have engaged with TechSheCan, including as part of the work to look at girls’ engagement in computing through the Digital and Computing Skills Education Taskforce and through the National Centre for Computing Education.In March 2023, the Department for Education and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology created the Digital and Computing Skills Education Taskforce. The taskforce will harness Government and external expertise to increase the numbers of individuals studying digital and computing qualifications and to attract individuals into digital jobs. One of the key issues the Taskforce will address is the poor gender diversity within computing and digital education and employment. As part of the process of gathering evidence for this workstream, officials met with various charitable organisations seeking to increase the proportion of women and girls taking digital and computing qualifications and ultimately gaining employment within the digital sector. TechSheCan was one of those organisations.The Department has provided over £100 million of funding for the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE) to improve the quality of computing education and increase participation in computing at GCSE and A level. In August 2023, the NCCE met with TechSheCan to discuss opportunities to better support one another, particularly in how we encourage more girls to identify computing as an area in which they can excel. This has included collaborating on the new ‘I Belong’ programme and associated teacher handbook, which has recently launched and aims to improve schools’ awareness of barriers to girls’ engagement with computing. The NCCE will continue to work with TechSheCan to develop an action plan for this academic year, ensuring any engagement provides the greatest benefit to pupils and teachers of computing.

Physics: Women

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many girls studied physics at (a) GCSE, (b) A-level and (c) bachelors degree level in (i) 2015, (ii) 2016, (iii) 2017, (iv) 2018, (v) 2019, (vi) 2020 (vii) 2021 and (viii) 2022.

Nick Gibb: The numbers of female students entering GCSE and A level exams in physics, and the numbers of enrolments from female students in a bachelor’s degree in physics, are published by the Department for Education and the Higher Education Statistics Agency respectively and can be found in the attached table.The number entering at GCSE includes those at the end of KS4, and for physics as an individual subject, but not those entered for the combined science GCSE (of which physics is a part).The number for A level includes all entries by female students aged 16 to 18 in that academic year.Enrolments for bachelor’s degrees are in first degree level physics courses at UK higher education providers. Number of GCSE Physics entries in England  (xlsx, 30.4KB)

Children in Care: Supported Housing

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department's policies of recent trends in the number of applications to register previously unregulated accommodation for looked after 16 and 17 year olds.

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department's policies of (a) recent trends in the number of inspections that have taken place of previously unregulated accommodation for looked after 16 and 17 year olds and (b) the outcomes of those inspections.

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of the level of compliance with the registration requirements for accommodation for looked-after 16- and 17-year olds prior to the deadline of 28 October 2023.

David Johnston: The government believes that every child in the care system deserves to live in a high-quality setting that meets their needs and keeps them safe. That is why the department is investing over £140 million to introduce mandatory national standards and Ofsted registration and inspection requirements for providers of supported accommodation for 16 and17 year old looked after children and care leavers. Ofsted began registering providers on 28 April 2023. The department knows that these reforms represent major change. That is why we have commissioned the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) through a £750,000 contract up to April 2024, to support providers and local authorities to prepare for the changes and registering with Ofsted. Departmental officials are working closely with Ofsted to monitor progress with registering providers as we approach October and will continue to work with the NCB to ensure that their support and resources are targeted in the areas it is most needed. The department is investing £123 million of the overall funding package to support local authorities to respond to the changes and offset the costs associated with these reforms. Ofsted will begin piloting inspections this year, ahead of beginning full inspections of providers of supported accommodation from April 2024. Ofsted has published a consultation which seeks views on how supported accommodation should be inspected. Further information on this consultation, including Ofsted’s proposed approach to inspecting providers of supported accommodation, is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposals-for-inspecting-supported-accommodation.

Foster Care: Cost of Living

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is providing additional financial support to local authorities in England to support foster children and parents with the cost of living.

David Johnston: The Fostering Services National Minimum Standards, issued by the Secretary of State under the Care Standards Act 2000, set out the expectation that fostering service providers cover the full cost of caring for each child placed with a foster carer. This should include paying at least the national minimum allowance (NMA), plus any agreed expenses to cover the full cost of caring for each child placed with them (Standard 28). The department expects fostering service providers to review their rates each year and to set out a clear policy on what their foster carers can expect. The Fostering Services National Minimum Standards can be accessed at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/192705/NMS_Fostering_Services.pdf.This year the department has raised the NMA for foster carers by an above inflation increase of 12.43%, to reflect the increasing costs of caring for a child.Foster carers also receive Qualifying Care Relief that is made up of tax exemption on the first £10,000 shared equally among any foster carers in the same household and tax relief for every week a child is in their care. This year, the department has increased the amount of income tax relief available to foster carers up to £18,140, from £10,000.

Students: Housing

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the cost of student accommodation in (a) purpose-built student accommodation and (b) the private rental sector on students' ability to remain at university.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with the Office for Students on the adequacy of the student loan and changes in the level of the cost of student accommodation in (a) York and (b) other university towns.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will provide additional support to students who live in areas with very high accommodation costs.

Robert Halfon: The government recognises the cost-of-living pressures that continue to impact students, including those wishing to live in student accommodation.Student accommodation is a busy part of the housing market, and as universities and landlords are private, autonomous bodies, the government has no role in providing student residential accommodation, nor a remit to intervene. The department expects universities and private landlords to review their accommodation policies to ensure they are fair, clear, and have the interests of students at heart. This includes making accommodation available at a range of affordable price points where possible.In England, the department has put in place a significant amount of support to help students tackle the ongoing cost of living pressures. We have continued to increase support for living costs each year for English-domiciled students, with a 2.8% increase to maximum loans and grants for the current 2023/24 academic year.Students who have been awarded a loan for living costs for the 2023/24 academic year that is lower than the maximum, and whose household income for the 2023/24 tax year has dropped by at least 15% compared to the income provided for their original assessment, will be able to apply for their entitlement to be reassessed.The department has frozen maximum tuition fees for the current academic year and for the 2024/25 academic year. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven years. We believe that this continued fee freeze achieves the best possible balance between ensuring the system stays sustainable, offering good value for the taxpayer, and reducing student debt.

Schools: Vocational Guidance

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many careers advisors were working in schools in the (a) 2019-20, (b) 2020-21, (c) 2021-22 and (d) 2022-23 academic years.

Nick Gibb: Secondary schools are responsible for making sure their pupils receive independent careers guidance. The Department’s statutory guidance is clear that every pupil should have opportunities for personal guidance interviews with a qualified careers adviser whenever significant study or career choices are being made. The Government’s expectation is that every pupil should have at least one such interview by the age of 16, and the opportunity for a further interview by the age of 18.The figures in the school workforce census do not represent the total number of careers advisers, since many schools and colleges commission the services of an external, qualified careers professional. Schools are encouraged to search for qualified careers practitioners in their area on the UK Register of Career Development Professionals. As of May 2022, there were approximately 1,800 careers professionals on the register.The Careers & Enterprise Company also connects schools and colleges with employers to provide meaningful encounters with the world of work for young people. One way they do this is through their Enterprise Adviser Network, which is an integral part of the Careers Hub Network. Enterprise Advisers commit around one day per month to work with individual schools or colleges to help unlock relationships with other local businesses and provide strategic guidance to develop their careers plan.In addition to the careers advice offered through their school or college, pupils can also access careers information, advice and guidance through the National Careers Service, which is accessible for those aged 13 and over. Pupils can access web chat and one to one guidance via the phone service.Information on the state funded school workforce in England, including the number of staff and subjects taught, is published in the annual ‘School workforce in England’ national statistics release, which is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.

STEM Subjects: Girls

Sally-Ann Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking at (a) primary and (b) secondary level to encourage more girls into STEM subjects.

Nick Gibb: The Department is committed to ensuring that anyone, regardless of their gender or background, can pursue an education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects. To support this, the Department has committed substantial spending to STEM education.The Department funds the Isaac Physics programme to increase the numbers of students, particularly from typically underrepresented backgrounds, studying physics in higher education. The Department also funds the Inclusion in Schools project to increase the uptake of A level physics from underrepresented students, including girls.Additionally, the Department is funding the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme, which provides tailored national support for teachers and students in all state funded schools and colleges in England with additional provision for those in priority areas, in particular girls and disadvantaged groups. The Department’s Maths Hubs programme focuses on improving attainment gaps, which may be associated with disadvantage, gender, or other factors.The Department is allocating £100 million of funding into the National Centre for Computing Education to drive increased participation in computer science and funding research programmes looking into how to tackle gender balance in STEM subjects.Secondary schools are expected to provide pupils with at least one meaningful interaction with employers per pupil per year, with a particular focus on STEM employers. These interactions introduce pupils to a range of different career possibilities and challenge stereotypes, as well as helping to prepare them for the workplace. This can be facilitated through programmes such as the STEM Ambassadors programme, a nationwide network of volunteers and STEM related employers providing a range of engaging and inspiring activities for pupils. Approximately 45% of these ambassadors are women and 15% are from minority ethnic backgrounds, providing young people with a variety of role models.

Family Hubs

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care about the potential merits of facilitating the universal provision of Family Hubs across the UK.

David Johnston: I refer the hon. Member for Slough to the answer given on 19 June 2023 to Question 188780.My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care meet in regular cross-government discussions and are committed to working together. The Department for Education works with the Department of Health and Social Care to deliver the joint £300 million Family Hubs and Start for Life programme, which enables 75 local authorities in England to create family hubs, and to improve vital services to give every baby the best start in life. This builds on the government’s previous investment to champion family hubs, including a £12 million transformation fund to open family hubs in a further 12 local authorities in England.Regarding family hub provision across the UK, education and health are devolved matters. It would therefore be for the devolved governments to decide on the provision of family hubs in their local areas.

Teachers: Chemistry and Physics

Anthony Mangnall: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of students who have received chemistry or physics bursaries for undertaking a PGCE accept a job in a state school at the end of their training; and what proportion of those teachers who remain in such employment after five years.

Nick Gibb: The Department’s published data shows that the rate of progression into teaching for those who receive a bursary is very similar to the rate of progression for all trainees. Of those who trained in 2020/21, the Department provisionally estimates that 74% of chemistry postgraduate trainees and 73% of physics postgraduate trainees who were awarded Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and were eligible for a bursary will be employed as a teacher in a state funded school in England within 16 months of the end of the academic year. The equivalent employment rate for all postgraduate trainees, whether they received a bursary or not, is 73%.The Department does not currently hold data showing the employment rate of bursary recipients after five years.For trainees starting Initial Teacher Training in the 2023/24 academic year, the Department is providing a £27,000 tax free bursary and a £29,000 scholarship in mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. The Department is also providing a Levelling Up Premium of up to £3,000 tax free annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools, including in Education Investment Areas. These incentives are designed to support the recruitment and retention of teachers in these subjects, and to encourage them to work in the schools and areas that need them most.

Special Educational Needs: Sign Language

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Education, Health and Care Plans included funding for courses in British Sign Language in each of the last five years.

David Johnston: Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans must specify the special educational provision required to meet each of the child or young person’s special educational needs. It is the responsibility of the local authority to secure the special educational provision specified in the plan. The department does not collect data on the specific types of special educational provision that are included in EHC plans.

Schools: Smoking

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent guidance she has given to schools on teaching pupils about the dangers of (a) smoking and (b) vaping.

Nick Gibb: The relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance states that, in both primary and secondary school, pupils should be taught the facts about legal and illegal harmful substances and associated risks, including smoking, alcohol use, and drug taking.To support schools to deliver this content effectively, the Department has published a suite of teacher training modules, including training on teaching about drugs, alcohol and tobacco, which makes specific reference to e-cigarettes (vaping).In addition, content on drugs, alcohol and tobacco is taught in compulsory health education. This supplements drug education which is part of the National Curriculum for science in Key Stages 2 and 3.Schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy that sets out what is expected of all pupils, including what items are banned from school premises. This should be communicated to all pupils, parents and school staff.Schools have the autonomy to decide which items should be banned from their premises, and these can include vapes. Items banned by the school can be searched for as outlined in the Department’s ‘Searching, Screening and Confiscation’ guidance, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/searching-screening-and-confiscation.The Department believes that this will help head teachers to manage vaping on school premises and inform young people about the risks of vaping, to reduce the numbers of young people who are currently vaping, or who might be tempted to try it in the future.The Department has brought forward the review of the RSHE statutory guidance, which commenced in March 2023. On 1 June 2023, the Prime Minister announced an intervention taking steps to prevent children obtaining vapes illegally. As part of this, the Department is planning to include the harms of vaping in the RSHE curriculum.The Department expects to publish an amended draft of the statutory guidance for consultation in the autumn, with a view to a final version being published in 2024.

Pupils: Absenteeism

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department issues to head teachers on tackling absenteeism among pupils in schools.

Nick Gibb: The Department is implementing a comprehensive strategy to tackle absenteeism among pupils in school. This includes publishing new guidance in September 2022. The guidance is for all school and academy trust staff, including head teachers and governors, in addition to Local Authority attendance staff and local partners. The guidance can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1099677/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance.pdf.The guidance includes the expectation that schools work with Local Authority attendance staff and local partners to monitor attendance patterns to identify problems early and facilitate targeted, multi agency support where needed. This is intended to improve the consistency of support offered to pupils and families. To help schools track attendance trends the Department has developed a pupil attendance data tool for schools, trusts, and Local Authorities.Following publication of the new guidance, the Department worked with high performing schools, trusts and Local Authorities to run a series of effective training webinars to embed good practice and improve attendance. The Department will continue to make support available for all schools and their headteachers in the form of good practice sharing and case studies.The Department recently published additional guidance on supporting attendance where mental health and wellbeing is a barrier, including examples of effective practice and support, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-issues-affecting-a-pupils-attendance-guidance-for-schools.

Leader of the House

Written Questions

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Leader of the House, whether she has made an estimate of how many and what proportion of written questions from Hon and Rt hon. members have resulted in the Government (a) changing policy and (b) taking particular action in the last year.

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Leader of the House, whether she has made an estimate of how many and what proportion of Early Day Motions tabled by hon. and Rt hon. Members have resulted in the Government (a) changing policy and (b) taking particular action in the last year.

Penny Mordaunt: This information is not collected centrally. Decisions on each policy area are a matter for individual Departments.Written Parliamentary Questions and Early Day Motions are important ways in which MPs can hold the Government to account and scrutinise policy.

Statutory Instruments: Parliamentary Scrutiny

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Leader of the House, whether she is taking steps to increase opportunities for the scrutiny of statutory instruments by backbenchers.

Penny Mordaunt: The Government is fully committed to a strong Parliament that effectively scrutinises legislation. In its response to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee's report 'Losing Impact: why the Government’s impact assessment system is failing Parliament and the public' (HL Paper 116), the Government agreed that it is important that Parliament has the information it needs and that impact assessments should be published, where possible, when an applicable instrument is laid before Parliament.Further to that response, the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee’s ‘Interim Report on the Work of the Committee in Session 2022-2023’ (HL Paper 205) sets out the steps the Government is taking on ensuring suitable opportunities for scrutiny by parliamentarians.

Leader of the House of Commons: Privy Council

Julian Knight: To ask the Leader of the House, how many Privy Council meetings has she attended in the last 12 months.

Penny Mordaunt: I have attended 14 meetings of the Privy Council within the last twelve months.Published details of all Privy Council meetings and business transacted since 2010 can be found at: https://privycouncil.independent.gov.uk/meetings-and-orders/orders-in-council/

Leader of the House of Commons: House of Commons Commission

Julian Knight: To ask the Leader of the House, what steps she is taking to help improve collaboration with the House of Commons Commission.

Penny Mordaunt: As the Government’s representative on the House of Commons Commission, I work closely with all Members of the Commission on a range of matters and will continue to do so.The Commission is responsible for the administration and services of the House of Commons. In order to inform the Commission’s work, I recently instigated a survey of all Members to better understand their needs and the support required to do their job and was pleased by the level of participation. I look forward to considering its findings.Further information regarding the agendas and decisions of the House of Commons Commission is available on parliament.uk.

House of Commons Members Estimate Committee

Julian Knight: To ask the Leader of the House, what her priorities are for providing oversight of the House of Commons Members Estimate.

Penny Mordaunt: The Members Estimate Committee, which has the same MP membership as the House of Commons Commission, is appointed by the House of Commons under Standing Order 152D. The Committee’s agenda items are often discussed as part of the House of Commons Commission meetings and, as the Government’s representative on the House of Commons Commission, I have regular discussions with Members of the Commission on a range of matters and will continue to do so.

Government Departments: Correspondence

Julian Knight: To ask the Leader of the House, what steps she is taking to help ensure that Members' requests for assistance on ministerial correspondence are addressed in a timely manner.

Penny Mordaunt: Parliament has a right to hold Ministers to account and, as Leader of the House, I expect Government Ministers to respond quickly and effectively to Members’ correspondence. I will continue to drive that message and I encourage members who get an unsatisfactory response to write to me and I will take this up for any Member who does not get a proper response.I recognise that my office and I have a role to play in making representations to Government on behalf of the House of Commons, and have taken a number of actions:I write to Cabinet colleagues every week following Business Questions to take up the concerns raised by Members, including in relation to delayed responses to correspondence.I have met with all departmental Permanent Secretaries where I reiterated the importance of substantive and timely answers to written parliamentary questions.I met separately with the Home Office Permanent Secretary following a number of concerns raised during Business Questions.I participated in a ‘Leading in Parliament’ session with Senior Civil Servants.In line with the practice of my predecessors, I have written to all members of Cabinet.My office oversees the Parliamentary Clerks’ Working Group, which brings together all departmental Parliamentary Clerks from across Whitehall to discuss topical issues and share best practice.The Parliamentary Capability Team in the Cabinet Office also provides training on managing parliamentary work to civil servants of all departments and grades, including blended learning courses on ministerial correspondence and tailored workshops for Senior Civil Servants. Since April 2022, 1,160 civil servants from across government have attended training provided by the Parliamentary Capability Team on managing Ministerial Correspondence and Written Parliamentary Questions.As per the Cabinet Office’s Guide to Handling Correspondence (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/handling-government-correspondence-guidance), departments and agencies should aim to respond to correspondence within a 20-working day target deadline. The Cabinet Office published data on this for 2022 for all government departments on GOV.UK in March 2023, and will be publishing data for Q1 and Q2 2023 shortly. The 2022 data can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-on-responses-to-correspondence-from-mps-and-peers-2022.

Legislation

Julian Knight: To ask the Leader of the House, how many meetings she has had with the Chief Whip to discuss Government priorities and the legislative programme in the past 12 months.

Penny Mordaunt: As Leader of the House of Commons, I meet regularly with Cabinet colleagues to discuss issues across my portfolio and will continue to do so.

Leader of the House of Commons: Written Questions

Julian Knight: To ask the Leader of the House, what steps their Department is taking to improve response times to written parliamentary questions.

Julian Knight: To ask the Leader of the House, what data their Department holds on the average response time to written parliamentary questions in the last six months; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.

Penny Mordaunt: Parliament has a right to hold Ministers to account and, as Leader of the House, I expect Government Ministers to respond quickly and effectively to written parliamentary questions. I will continue to drive that message and I encourage members who get an unsatisfactory response to write to me and I will take this up for any Member who does not get a proper response.Data on response times to written parliamentary questions is held by the House, not government, and the ​Procedure ​Committee has a strong track record of calling Ministers in to look at​ departmental​ performance where there are issues​. Their regular reporting of performance continues to be an effective tool​. ​I note the Procedure Committee's report from earlier in this session on written parliamentary questions during the 2021-22 session​ and ​I was pleased to read that the number of answers provided on time has improved from the 2019-21 session. ​I hope we will see this improvement continue when the Committee publishes its next report following the current session. ​I recognise that my office and I have a role to play in making representations to Government on behalf of the House of Commons, and have taken a number actions:In line with the practice of my predecessors, I have written to all members of Cabinet.I met with all departmental Permanent Secretaries where I reiterated the importance of substantive and timely answers to written parliamentary questions.I participated in a ‘Leading in Parliament’ session with Senior Civil Servants.I met with the Home Office Permanent Secretary following a number of concerns raised during Business Questions.In November 2022 my office published an updated Guide to Parliamentary Work which is available on Gov.uk and includes guidance for civil servants on answering written parliamentary questions (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-parliamentary-work).My office oversees the Parliamentary Clerks’ Working Group, which brings together all departmental Parliamentary Clerks from across Whitehall to discuss topical issues and share best practice.The Parliamentary Capability Team in the Cabinet Office also provides training on managing parliamentary work to civil servants of all departments and grades, including blended learning courses on Written Parliamentary Questions and tailored workshops for Senior Civil Servants. Since April 2022, 1012 civil servants from across government have attended training provided by the Parliamentary Capability Team on managing Written Parliamentary Questions.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Bahrain: Prisons

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the hunger strike in Jau Prison in Bahrain.

David Rutley: The FCDO continues to follow the hunger strike by Bahraini prisoners in Jau Prison and understands that whilst the Ministry of Interior has agreed to address a number of prisoner demands, the strike remains in place. The FCDO remains in contact with relevant authorities in Bahrain and takes account of a range of sources when assessing the situation.

Matthew Hedges

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make a formal apology to Matthew Hedges on the level of support offered by his Department while Mr Hedges was in prison in United Arab Emirates.

David Rutley: The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) issued a formal apology to Mr Hedges on 31 August 2023 in accordance with the recommendations set out following an investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, which upheld aspects of his complaint. Supporting British nationals when they need help abroad remains an enduring priority of the FCDO.

Ahmed Jaafar Mohamed Ali

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what information his Department holds on the treatment of Ahmed Jaafar in Jau Prison in Bahrain.

David Rutley: The FCDO continues to follow the case of Ahmed Jaafar and encourages the Government of Bahrain to meet all of its human rights commitments. We also encourage those with specific issues to raise them directly with the appropriate Bahraini oversight body.

Developing Countries: Education

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what progress his Department has made on the development of the SCALE programme; and which countries will be included in that programme.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: Scaling Access and Learning in Education (SCALE) will increase the delivery of cost-effective education interventions in low and lower middle-income countries (LICs and LMICs).SCALE will provide technical support to adapt evidence-based approaches to new contexts and implement rigorous test-learn-adapt pilots to prepare these for scaling in national systems.SCALE is in its inception phase. Progress is underway to mobilise technical expertise and scope high-potential pilots. Technical assistance will be available to all ODA-eligible countries. Pilots will focus on LICs and LMICs and will be selected against a set of rigorous criteria (found in the SCALE business case on DevTracker).

Afghanistan: Embassies

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he plans to reopen the embassy in Afghanistan.

Leo Docherty: The British Embassy in Kabul suspended operations in August 2021. The UK Mission to Afghanistan based in Doha is leading our diplomatic, security and humanitarian engagement. The UK will consider re-opening the embassy when the political and security situation allow.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Labour Turnover

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what information their Department holds on the level of staff retention; and what steps they are taking to improve staff retention.

David Rutley: For all people leaving the FCDO, the FCDO records their leaving date and their leaving reason from a set list of options. This informs FCDO turnover rates. While some staff turnover is natural and appropriate, to prevent undesirable departures the FCDO is investing in staff retention through a variety of actions, including its implementation of the 2023 FCDO pay award for UK Based Staff (UKBS) and Country Based Staff (CBS), its ongoing development of a capability framework to support staff career planning, and its ongoing organisational responses to the 2022 Civil Service People Survey results for the FCDO.

Israel: Detainees

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system.

David Rutley: We repeatedly call on Israel to abide by its obligations under international law and have a regular dialogue with Israel on legal issues relating to the occupation, including the treatment of Palestinian children. We continue to monitor Israel's extensive use of administrative detention which, according to international law, should be used only when security makes this absolutely necessary rather than as routine practice and as a preventive rather than a punitive measure. We remain committed to working with the Israeli Government to secure improvements to the practices surrounding children in detention and continue to raise this with the Israeli Ministry of Justice through our embassy in Tel Aviv. The Minister of State for the Middle East, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, also frequently meets with charities and NGOs regarding issues relating to the occupation. He most recently discussed child detention in a meeting with representatives of Save The Children, Oxfam GB, Medical Aid for Palestinians and Christian Aid on 4 July.

Israel: Palestinians

Mr Philip Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his polices of Israel Defence Forces reports of Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s storage of weapons within civilian and religious sites in Jenin; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Philip Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had discussion with his counterparts at the Palestinian Authority on Israel Defence Force's reports of 300 Palestinian Islamic Jihad gunmen in Jenin.

David Rutley: The UK is actively monitoring the security situation in Jenin. We unequivocally condemn the use and possession of indiscriminate weapons by militant groups in Jenin. The UK has proscribed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as a terrorist entity since March 2001. PIJ and other terrorist groups must cease their campaign of violence, for which there is no justification. Such activity compromises the region's security, its ability to prosper and escalates already high tensions, with consequences for the international community. The UK supports the Palestinian Authority's security jurisdiction in area 'A' of the West Bank, as agreed through the Oslo Accords. We call on the Palestinian Authority and Government of Israel to cooperate in securing the safety and protection of civilians across the West Bank.

Afghanistan: Development Aid

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 June 2023 to Question 190954 on Afghanistan: Development Aid, whether parts of that funding has been ringfenced to support Afghan women and girls.

Leo Docherty: The UK Government continues to condemn the Taliban's attacks on the rights of women in Afghanistan. We remain committed that at least 50 per cent of people reached with UK aid in Afghanistan will be women and girls - a commitment we met in 2021-2022 and are on track to meet for 2022-2023.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Domestic Visits

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if they will take steps to visit Solihull constituency in 2023.

David Rutley: The Foreign Secretary has no plans at present for a visit to Solihull constituency in 2023.

Ascension Island

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many officials his Department has stationed on Ascension Island as of September 2023.

David Rutley: Two Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs officials are stationed on Ascension Island as of September 2023. The Administrator is concurrently the head of the Ascension Island Government.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Correspondence

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps they are taking to reduce backlogs of Member correspondence in their office.

David Rutley: Since COVID the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has been working hard to clear its correspondence backlog. Correspondence data for all Government Departments is published annually by the Cabinet Office [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-on-responses-to-correspondence-from-mps-and-peers-2022]. The FCDO has implemented a successful programme of work to streamline correspondence processes and this has significantly reduced the overall correspondence backlog year on year as shown below:June 2021 - 932 lettersJune 2022 - 199 lettersJune 2023 - 60 letters

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Public Inquiries

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what has been the average time taken to respond to public inquiries by his Department in each of the last five years; and whether he plans to introduce measures to improve this.

David Rutley: The FCDO attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence and endeavours to respond to all correspondence within Cabinet Office timeframes. However, we do not hold central records on average response times and this information could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Correspondence

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what data their Department holds on the average response time to enquiries by Members; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.

David Rutley: The FCDO attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence and endeavours to respond to all correspondence within Cabinet Office timeframes. However, we do not hold central records on average response times and this information could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. Correspondence data for all Government Departments is published annually by the Cabinet Office [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-on-responses-to-correspondence-from-mps-and-peers-2022].

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Digital Technology

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps their Department is taking to improve its digital services to provide better (a) accessibility and (b) user experience for the public.

David Rutley: The FCDO's Consular Crisis Strategy [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/consular-and-crisis-strategy-2022/consular-and-crisis-strategy-2022] emphasises our commitment to 24/7 accessibility and increasing the number and quality of digital services available for the public.We build and run our digital services in line with cross government standards covering accessibility and user experience, including the GOV.UK Service Manual [https://www.gov.uk/service-manual] and the Technology Code of Practice [https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-technology-code-of-practice]. Our content published on the gov.uk domain is covered by the GOV.UK Accesibility Statement [https://www.gov.uk/help/accessibility-statement].We have an ongoing programme to improve our digital services, which includes accessibility testing and user research. Recent examples include improvements to our Travel Advice service and Emergency Travel Documents service.

India: Elephants

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterparts in India on changes to domestic legislation effecting Asian elephants habitats and other biodiversity.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan: The UK Government is working closely with India to strengthen collaboration on nature, including through our Forests Partnership which is focused on forest and biodiversity conservation. A joint working group between UK and Indian officials took place in July, and through this partnership officials continue to engage with Government of India interlocutors on a range of issues related to biodiversity, including the impacts of changes to any legislation. The Secretary of State for Defra also recently attended the G20 Climate and Environment Ministerial Meeting in India, where discussion on biodiversity and nature featured prominently.

Ascension Island: Visits Abroad

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he plans to visit Ascension Island in the next 12 months.

David Rutley: Any plans for ministerial travel would be set out in due course, in the usual way.

Libya: Conflict, Stability and Security Fund

Margaret Beckett: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much from the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund has been allocated to the Libya bilateral programme for the 2022-23 financial year.

David Rutley: The Libya Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) Programme was allocated £6.6 million in financial year 2022-2023, of which £6 million was Official Development Assistance (ODA) and £0.6 million Non-ODA.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Freedom of Information

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the average time taken by his Department to respond to freedom of information requests in the 2022-23 financial year.

David Rutley: For the majority of the financial year 2022-23 the FCDO's response rate to Freedom of Information Requests (FOIs) was well above 80 percent on time. In the 3rd Quarter there was a dip in performance due to a number of factors including:· An upsurge in Subject Access Requests and FOIs relating to Sanctions· A historical issue with vacancies within the Information Rights Team· An increase in Internal Reviews from requesters after an FOI was closedIn the final Quarter of 2022-23 the response rate recovered to around 80 percent on time. We continue to work to improve on this.

Thailand: British Nationals Abroad

Dave Doogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many and in which regions of Thailand did deaths of UK nationals occur where the reported cause of death was recorded as unknown in 2022.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan: In 2022, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) provided consular assistance in 154 new cases in Thailand following a death where the circumstances were recorded as unknown in our case management system.Our current case management system does not enable us to filter results in order to isolate cases from particular regions within Thailand.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Freedom of Information

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps their Department is taking to improve the response time to FOI requests.

David Rutley: The FCDO takes its responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act very seriously and will continue to strive to answer Freedom of Information (FOI) requests within the required timescales.We have taken a number of steps aimed at improving response times. To date, the FCDO has:· Undertaken a series of recruitment exercises to fill vacancies within the team.· Dedicated resources to additional surge capacity slots to help speed up processing times.· Created a dedicated Subject Access Request team.We have undertaken a two stage review:· Stage 1: (June 2023) The bringing together of Knowledge and Information Management Services with the Information Rights Unit to align all information related responsibilities in one place.· Stage 2: (October 2023) To review our FOI process in the FCDO.

Ascension Island: Asylum

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his US counterpart the offshoring of people seeking asylum to Ascension Island.

David Rutley: The Secretary of State speaks to his US counterpart regularly on the many shared interests between the UK and the USA. There have been no recent discussions with his US counterpart on the recent press speculation surrounding offshoring of people seeking asylum to Ascension Island.

Canada: Travel Information

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will hold discussions with his counterpart in Canada on the accuracy of the information about the United Kingdom on the Canadian government webpage entitled United Kingdom travel advice.

David Rutley: UK and Canadian Ministers regularly meet to discuss a range of Government business. There are no current plans for Ministers to discuss the Government of Canada's travel advice for the UK.

USA: Arts Festivals

Nadia Whittome: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has had recent discussions with its US counterpart on British citizens who are stranded at the Burning Man festival.

David Rutley: The FCDO has not received any requests for consular assistance from British nationals related to the Burning Man Festival. If British nationals abroad are in need of support, they can contact the FCDO on +44 (0)20 7008 5000 or visit [https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/support-for-british-nationals-abroad] for further information.

Women and Equalities

Disability: Internet

Stephen Farry: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to establish rights for disabled people online similar to those in the Equality Act 2010.

Stuart Andrew: The Equality Act 2010 already requires the providers of online services to make reasonable adjustments for their disabled customers - for example those with visual impairments. This is an anticipatory duty, meaning service providers should expect a proportion of their customers to need adjustments and put appropriate systems in place, ready for when they are needed. A failure to make such adjustments is unlawful disability discrimination under the 2010 Act. Before considering any legal action, a disabled person who may have been discriminated against because of a disability may contact The Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS), the government helpline established to provide free bespoke advice and in-depth support to individuals with discrimination concerns. The EASS can be contacted via their website - http://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/, by telephone on 0808 8000082 or text phone on 0808 8000084. The EASS has the ability to intervene on an individual’s behalf with a service provider to help resolve an issue. The EASS can also advise people who wish to take their complaint further on their options.

Prime Minister

Prime Minister: Domestic Visits

Julian Knight: To ask the Prime Minister, if they will take steps to visit Solihull constituency in 2023.

Rishi Sunak: Details of my future official visits will be announced in the usual way.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Social Rented Housing: Stockport

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the waiting list for social housing in Stockport constituency.

Dehenna Davison: The Government has given local councils freedom to manage their own waiting lists, so they can decide who should qualify for social housing in their area and develop solutions that make best use of the social housing stock.

Electric Vehicles: Charging Points

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential merits of changing planning regulations to introduce a presumption in favour of permitting on street electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Rachel Maclean: Nationally set permitted development rights enable local authorities to install electric vehicle charging points without the need for a planning application. We have recently amended the rights so that bodies working on behalf of the local authority can also undertake the works. In the context of planning applications, the National Planning Policy Framework outlines that planning policies should take into account the need to ensure adequate provision of spaces for charging plug-in and other ultra-low emission vehicles.

Planning Permission

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether the quality of life of a community factors into consideration of called-in planning applications.

Rachel Maclean: When reaching a decision on called-in applications, Planning Ministers take into account all relevant planning matters, based on the detailed findings of the independent planning inspector following a public inquiry. Full details of the reasons for each decision are set out in the decision letter.

Housing: Enfield North

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department plans to take steps to help support the building of homes in Enfield North constituency.

Rachel Maclean: Our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will deliver thousands of affordable homes to rent and to buy right across the country, including thousands of new homes for social rent. London will receive £4 billion investment from this programme.The programme is open for bids in all parts of England. We welcome ideas from existing and new partners who have an ambition to deliver more affordable homes. More details are online  here.  The Mayor of London, through the London Plan and Housing Strategy, sets out where homes should be built and what level of affordable housing is required.

Supported Housing: Planning

Judith Cummins: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 5 July 2023 to Question 191359 on Housing: Disability and Older People, what guidance his Department published in 2019 for local authorities on (a) assessing the size, type and tenure of housing needed for different groups in the community and (b) planning for those who require supported housing.

Rachel Maclean: In 2019, the government published Guidance on Housing for Older and Disabled People, to help local authorities plan for the housing needs of these groups.Among other things, this guidance set out the range of needs local authorities should assess, as well as the evidence that local authorities can consider when identifying the housing needs of older and disabled people.

Evictions and Homelessness: Enfield North

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help (a) protect renters from eviction and (b) support people who are homeless in Enfield North constituency.

Felicity Buchan: I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 191614 on 6 July 2023.We remain committed to ending rough sleeping and tackling homelessness. We have given councils over £2 billion over three years to help them tackle homelessness and rough sleeping, targeted to areas where it is needed most. In Enfield, this includes £20,405,298 funding through the Homelessness Prevention Grant for 2023/24 and 2024/25.

Vagrancy Act 1824

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 26 January 2023 to Question 130114 on Vagrancy Act 1824, what his timeline is for publishing his Department’s response to the consultation on the Vagrancy Act 1824.

Felicity Buchan: I refer the Hon Member to my answer to Question UIN 82438 on 14 November 2022 and to the oral answer given on 10 July 2023 (Official Report, HL, Volume 831, Column 1514).

Home Office

Refugees: Afghanistan

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether she has held recent discussions with Cabinet colleagues on helping more people who have been accepted by the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme and are living in hotels in Islamabad to move to the UK.

Robert Jenrick: The UK made an ambitious and generous commitment to help resettle those fleeing persecution and those who served the UK. Since June 2021, we have brought 24,500 people to safety to the UK.Any current or former staff directly employed by, or for, the UK Government and assessed to be at serious risk of threat to life are eligible to apply for the ARAP.  The Ministry of Defence first consider all applications under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP). Afghan citizens and their family members assessed as eligible for relocation will then be referred to the Home Office for permission to enter the UK. This is subject to the enrolment of biometrics and security checks.The Government will honour its commitments to bring eligible people to the UK and will arrange and pay for travel to our country when suitable UK accommodation has been secured. The Government is working intensively with local authorities and other partners to ensure suitable accommodation is secured.The Department of Levelling Up Housing and Communities is also considering further options to help identify suitable accommodation, so we can welcome more Afghans in third countries. This includes learning the lessons from sponsorship schemes like Homes for Ukraine. We continue to work, including with likeminded partners and countries neighbouring Afghanistan, on resettlement issues and to support safe passage for eligible Afghans.

Asylum: Portland Port

Zarah Sultana: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 5 July 2023 to Question 191863 on Asylum: Falmouth, if her Department will publish the results of the statutory inspection.

Zarah Sultana: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to allow people seeking asylum housed in the Bibby Stockholm barge to enter and leave the barge (a) during the day and (b) at night.

Robert Jenrick: The statutory inspection was carried out prior to the Home Office taking control of the barge.

Youth Mobility Scheme: India

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications to the India Young Professionals Scheme visa scheme were (a) made and (b) successful in the ballot period that closed in March 2023.

Robert Jenrick: There are 3,000 places available for the India Young Professionals Scheme visa in 2023. Most places were allocated in the February ballot. The remaining places will be given in the July ballot. The Home Office does not routinely publish the results of visa ballots, although the numbers of those who have applied and been successful for such visas will be published in due course.

Afghanistan: Refugees

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) principals and (b) dependents have been relocated to the UK under the Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme (i) Pathway 2 and (ii) Pathway 3 as of 1 September 2023.

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on what date did the first cohort of Afghan people arrive in the UK under (a) Pathway 2 and (b) Pathway 3 under the Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme.

Robert Jenrick: The UK has made one of the largest commitments of any country to support those impacted by events in Afghanistan.Whilst public data on separating principals and dependants is not available, the latest Immigration system statistics, year ending June 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) (published on 24 August 2023), show that since their first arrivals in 2021, the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) and the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) - have resettled a total of 21,526 people.

Asylum

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people denied asylum have been granted humanitarian protection in each of the last five years.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on people granted humanitarian protection can be found in table Asy_D02 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks.Please note that the figures for grants of humanitarian protection include those granted humanitarian protection following a refused asylum claim, however this specific breakdown is not published separately.The latest data relate to the year ending June 2023. Data for the year ending September 2023 will be published on 23 November 2023. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.

Asylum: Temporary Accommodation

Sir George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers were staying in (a) hotels or (b) other forms of accommodation on 1 September 2023.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office publishes data on asylum seekers in receipt of support in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum seekers in receipt of support by accommodation type including hotels and other accommodation can be found in table Asy_D09 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’.Please note the data show a snapshot as at the last day of each quarter, rather than the number of asylum applications awaiting a decision over the entire quarter.The latest data relates to as at 30 June 2023. Data as at 30 September 2023 will be published on 23 November 2023. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.

Asylum

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2023 to Question 181937 on Asylum, how many legacy asylum claims submitted before 28 June 2022 have not yet received a decision.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office publishes provisional data on the asylum backlog in the ‘Statistics relating to the Illegal Migration Act’ release. Provisional data on asylum applications awaiting an initial decision, including a breakdown by legacy and flow cases, as at 31 March 2011 to 30 July 2023, can be found in table IMB_02 of the ‘Statistics relating to the Illegal Migration Act: data tables to July 2023’.The Home Office also publishes finalised data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on applications awaiting an initial decision under Section 12 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, including a breakdown by legacy and flow cases, is published in table Asy_10a of the ‘asylum and resettlement summary tables’. Data on the number of people awaiting a decision is published in table Asy_10b. The latest data relates to as at 30 June 2023. Data as at 30 September 2023 will be published on 23 November 2023.Please note the provisional data in the ‘Statistics relating to the Illegal Migration Act’ release is higher than the figures in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’ as the provisional data includes duplicates which have not been cleansed from the data; the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’ has been subject to additional quality assurance as cleansing.Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.

Offenders: Deportation

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 10 July 2023 to Question 193669 on Offenders: Deportation, what information her Department holds on the number of applications for the Facilitated Return Scheme (a) that were considered and (b) for which a decision was taken by her Department within 20 days of submission of that application in each of the last five years.

Robert Jenrick: Information on the number of applications for the Facilitated Return Scheme that are (a) considered and (b) decided within 20 days is not available from published statistics.

Police Stations: Concrete

Mr Alistair Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the extent of the use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in police stations.

Chris Philp: My officials continue to work closely with policing partners to assess any safety issues resulting from the life expiry of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC).All police forces are aware of the potential risks and have been working alongside industry experts since 2021 to ensure site inspections by qualified building surveyors and condition surveys are conducted. Individual police forces have rightly taken a variety of steps to mitigate any potential issues and ensure everyone’s safety – including vacating buildings, and demolishing or replacing structures where issues have been identified. Where there is any uncertainty forces are conducting prompt further investigations

Educational Visits: EU Nationals

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a school travel scheme to enable EU school groups to visit the UK.

Robert Jenrick: All visitors to the United Kingdom are expected to hold a valid passport and visa where necessary.However, as part of an overall agreement on migration reached with France during the March summit between the Prime Minister and the French President, we have committed to easing travel between our two countries for schoolchildren on organised trips. Work is now under way to operationalise these arrangements.

Electronic Travel Authorisations

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of Electronic Travel Authorisation requirements for transit passengers on the competitiveness of the (a) airline and (b) tourism sectors.

Robert Jenrick: The Government is committed to strengthening the UK’s border by ensuring that everyone (except British and Irish citizens) wishing to travel to the UK, including to transit through the UK, obtains permission to travel in advance of their journey. It will make the UK safer. The requirement to obtain an ETA will enable the Government to prevent the travel of those who present a risk to the UK, including those in transit. The process for obtaining an ETA will be quick and light touch, and the cost (£10 per application) will be minimal compared to the overall cost of international travel. The ETA brings the UK into line with the USA’s ESTA and the EU will shortly introduce the ETTAS.

Alcoholic Drinks: Scotland

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her Department's policies of the report by Public Health Scotland entitled Evaluating the impact of minimum unit pricing for alcohol in Scotland, published on 27 June 2023.

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to consult on introducing minimum unit pricing in England.

Chris Philp: The Government maintains an interest in the impact of minimum unit pricing in Scotland and will consider the findings from the outcome report in due course.

Electronic Travel Authorisations

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to ensure that application forms for Electronic Travel Authorisations will be available in a range of languages.

Robert Jenrick: On introduction, the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) application form and mobile application will be in plain English and extremely short. The application has been designed to take less than 10 minutes to complete, with mostly automated data capture which requires minimal input. Feedback gathered from users who are not native English speakers, has been positive, with users reporting that the application is easy to use and simple. The Home Office will continuously review the effectiveness of our application process, including the need for multi-language content and guidance.

Youth Mobility Scheme

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for a Youth Mobility Scheme visa were made by nationality of applicant in (a) 2021 and (b) 2022.

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Youth Mobility Scheme visas were issued by nationality of applicant in (a) 2021 and (b) 2022.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office publishes data on Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) visas by nationality in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the applications of YMS visas are published in table ‘Vis_D01’ of the detailed entry clearance visas dataset. Data on the outcomes of YMS visa applications are published in table ‘Vis_D02’ of the detailed entry clearance visas dataset. Selecting ‘Youth Mobility Scheme (previously Tier 5)’ from the visa type subgroup filter will output data on YMS visa applicants. Nationality and time frames can also be filtered. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates up to the end of March 2023. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.

Migrant Workers: Vacancies

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria the Migration Advisory Committee used to assess the revised shortage occupation list.

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had recent discussions with the Migration Advisory Committee on including in its work an assessment of the impact of migration on housing.

Robert Jenrick: In the Migration Advisory Committee’s (MAC) review of the construction sector earlier this year they recommended adding five occupations to the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) on an interim basis ahead of the full review. The MAC are due to submit their full review of the SOL later this year, and the Government will carefully consider their recommendations once received. A detailed methodology of how occupations are assessed for entry to SOL can be found at:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/methodology-for-the-mac-shortage-occupation-list We are in regular discussions with the MAC about their future workplan. The MAC are first and foremost, labour market experts but have in the past, considered issues such as housing and public services during its work: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/migration-advisory-committee-mac-report-points-based-system-and-salary-thresholds Given the independence of the MAC, they are free to engage with any stakeholders or experts which will help them formulate recommendations in response to Government commissions.

Asylum: Applications

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 7 July 2023 to Question 191605 on Asylum: staff, how long it takes to train a newly recruited decision maker.

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 7 July 2023 to Question 191605 on Asylum: staff, what progress she has made on recruiting asylum decision makers to take their number to 2500 by September 2023.

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is on track to clear all legacy asylum claims made before 28 June 2022.

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of whether the planned increase in the number of asylum decision-makers to 2,500 by September 2023 will enable her Department to clear all legacy asylum claims made before 28 June 2022.

Robert Jenrick: There is currently work underway to redesign the training of Asylum decision makers. The current plan will see the initial training reduced from 9 to 2-3 weeks with further training given as the decision maker progresses.As of 01 May 2023, there are 1,280 full time equivalent (FTE) Asylum Decision Makers. This information is published online: Statistics relating to the Illegal Migration Bill on GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Please note that this data is provisional and includes the number of asylum decision makers employed from the beginning of each month from August 2019 to May 2023.The latest Home Office statistics show asylum decisions are up in the year ending March 2023, with a 35% increase in asylum decisions from the previous year which may be in part due to the increase in the number of asylum decision makers employed by the Home Office.We are on track to clear the legacy asylum backlog by the end of 2023.

Kent Intake Unit: Health Services

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 July 2023 to Question 193136 on Kent Intake Unit: Health Services, how many medical staff are employed at that Unit.

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 July 2023 to Question 193136 on Kent Intake Unit: Health Services, how many medical staff are on duty at that Unit at any one time.

Robert Jenrick: Kent Intake Unit has a 24-hour medical service on site and a purpose-built medical isolation room. A total of 16 medical staff are assigned to Kent Intake Unit on a rota basis.At any one time one medical member of staff is on duty.

Overseas Students: Health Services and Visas

Alyn Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to allow international students to split the cost of their (a) visa and (b) immigration health surcharge over the duration of their visa, in the context of planned increases in those costs.

Robert Jenrick: There is no intention to permit the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) to be paid in instalments. The IHS is designed to be paid up-front, in full, so an individual’s healthcare is covered for the duration of their immigration permission in the UK.The immigration and nationality fees regulations 2018 require visa fees to be paid in full in order for the application to be valid. There are currently no plans to change this requirement.

Refugees: Afghanistan

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made on relocating Afghan refugees from hotels.

Robert Jenrick: The UK made an ambitious and generous commitment to help resettle those fleeing persecution and those who served the UK. Since June 2021, we have brought 24,500 people to safety to the UK.Bridging hotels are not and were never designed to be permanent accommodation. Long-term residency in hotels has prevented some Afghans from properly putting down roots, committing to employment and fully integrating into communities. The pace at which people can be moved on is dictated by the availability of suitable accommodation provided by local authorities.From the end of April 2023, individuals staying in hotels and serviced accommodation began to receive legal notice to leave their temporary accommodation by a certain date. A dedicated cross-government casework team, made up of Home Office Liaison Officers and DWP staff, are based in hotels and work alongside local authority officials to provide advice and support to Afghans.The Find Your Own (FYO) accommodation pathway has been established and empowers Afghan families to source their own accommodation, rather than the Home Office. Council support staff in hotels will work closely with households to help them navigate the pathway.

Migrants: Health Services

Alyn Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her planned timetable is for when increases in the cost of (a) works visas, (b) study visas and (c) the immigration health surcharge will come into effect.

Robert Jenrick: We will lay regulations in the Autumn to amend the immigration and nationality fee and IHS levels and set out which immigration routes are impacted.

Veterans: Hong Kong

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress she has made on implementing the Hong Kong Veterans Settlement route announced on 29 March 2023.

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with her Chinese counterpart on the Hong Kong Veterans Settlement route announced on 29 March 2023.

Robert Jenrick: The government’s new Hong Kong Veterans Settlement route will be open to all servicemen and women who served in the British military prior to July 1st 1997, and their family members, including a partner or spouse and dependent children. Applications for Settlement are expected to open this Autumn.Home Office officials work closely with the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office and the Department for Levelling Up Health and Communities, as well as other government departments, to ensure that the UK is a safe and welcoming place for both those who hold BN(O) status and other Hongkongers.

Overseas Students: Postgraduate Education

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with (a) the Russell Group, (b) Universities UK and (c) other sector stakeholders on proposed restrictions to the ability of international students to bring family members on all but post-graduate research routes.

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions she had discussions with (a) the Russell Group, (b) Universities UK and (c) other sector stakeholders on the potential impact of changes to immigration rules for international students in 2022.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office regularly engages with a range of organisations, including Russell Group and Universities UK and will continue to do so.

Asylum: Temporary Accommodation

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the total cost to the UK taxpayer has been since January 2020 of housing asylum seekers who have arrived on small boats in hotels and other locations.

Robert Jenrick: The number of people arriving in the UK who require accommodation has reached record levels and has put our asylum system under incredible strain.We have been clear that the use of hotels to house asylum seekers is unacceptable. There are currently more than 51,000 asylum seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer over £6 million a day.The Home Office is making every effort to reduce our reliance on hotels through alternative forms of accommodation to limit the burden on the taxpayer.As per standard practice, audited costs for the large accommodation sites will be published through the Home Office annual reports and accounts.To reduce hotel use, asylum seekers will routinely share rooms with at least one person where appropriate. This will minimise the impact on communities while we stand up alternative sites.

Migration Advisory Committee

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the criteria are for appointment to the Migration Advisory Committee.

Robert Jenrick: Appointments to the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) are made in line with the Governance Code on Public Appointments: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/governance-code-for-public-appointments.The Home Secretary is responsible for agreeing the criteria, and this will depend on the skills and experience required for each competition. The most recent appointment competition for the MAC listed the following criteria:Essential criteriaExperience of committee membership, or board level experience within commerce, or non-academic sectors.Ability to provide clear and specific advice, independent of government or industry.A good communicator with sound judgement.Senior business leader with understanding and experience of using the UK immigrations systemDesirable criteriaA good understanding of the UK labour market and immigration system, particularly for economic migrants.Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to represent the MAC in public forums, such as at engagement events.

Animal Experiments

Ian Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's consultation on Section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, which closed on 13 June 2014, for what reason her Department did not publish a response to the consultation; and if she will make it her policy to publish a response in the next six months.

Tom Tugendhat: The Government intends to bring forward proposals and engage with stakeholders this year on transparency of information and the protection of confidential information regarding the regulation of the use of animals in science.In doing so the Government intends to clarify section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, taking account of the previous consultation.

Home Office: Staff

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has commissioned a well-being survey of officials in her Department.

Chris Philp: The wellbeing of civil servants is surveyed annually as part of the Civil Service People Survey.In 2021 and 2022, civil servants were also independently surveyed by the mental health charity as part of our application for the MIND Employer Index Awards.The Home Office actively promotes the services provided by the Charity For Civil Servants (CFCS) as an external support option to compliment the internal services of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). CFCS offer a range of mental health, financial and legal services, information and advice to all civil servants at no cost to the individual.

Refugees: Children

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of children held longer than the time limit for detention.

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that lone child refugees held in detention centres do not feel intimidated and frightened.

Robert Jenrick: We take the welfare of children incredibly seriously and that is why we have said it is not compassionate to allow people - including vulnerable children - to be risking their lives any longer. We have to break the cycle and stop the boats.The Home Office have put in place further funding throughout 2023-24 of £6,000 for every unaccompanied child moved from a UASC hotel to a local authority within five working days to encourage quicker transfers into local authority care.

Refugees: Children

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that vulnerable children are treated with decency and compassion.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office takes our duty of care towards children extremely seriously and we prioritise the safety of children and any applications from asylum seeking children.We have robust safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all children in hotels are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with a local authority. Children are supported by team leaders and support workers who are on site 24 hours a day. Further care is provided in hotels by teams of social workers and nurses. All contingency sites have security staff on site 24/7 and providers liaise closely with local police to ensure the welfare and safety of vulnerable residents Decision makers who specifically deal with children’s claims complete additional training on Processing Children’s Asylum Claims and have additional periods of mentoring. Additionally, decision makers attend a Safeguarding Awareness training which raises awareness of responsibilities of staff who deal with non-detained individuals and aims to ensure a consistent approach to safeguarding procedures for children.

Asylum

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of asylum decisions made since 1 January 2023 were classed as administrative decisions; and how many and what proportion of such decisions were (a) explicit withdrawals and (b) implicit withdrawals.

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of asylum decisions made since 1 January 2023 which were classified as (a) explicit and (b) implicit withdrawals led to (i) a successful appeal and (ii) the submission of a new asylum application by the applicant.

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of asylum decisions made since 1 January 2023 which were classified as (a) explicit and (b) implicit withdrawals related to applicants who were living in accommodation provided under section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 when the decision was made.

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of asylum applicants whose claims have been treated as (a) explicit and (b) implicit withdrawals since 1 January 2023 were subsequently (i) held in detention and (ii) removed from the UK.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office publishes data on asylum decisions, appeals, support, and detention and returns in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’.The following data is available:In the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’:- initial decisions made on asylum applications, including withdrawals: table Asy_D02- outcomes of asylum appeals raised at the First-Tier Tribunal: table Asy_D07- asylum seekers in receipt of support, by support type and accommodation type: table Asy_D09In the ‘returns and detention datasets’:- people in immigration detention- returns, including asylum-related returnsInformation on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks. The latest data relate to the year ending March 2023, with the exception of returns which cover up to December 2022. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.These datasets are published separately, meaning it is not possible to link between them to know whether, for example, an asylum seeker with a withdrawn claim was receiving support or lodged an appeal.

Seasonal Workers: Visas

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to increase the duration of seasonal workers’ visas to nine months for people in (a) all sectors of the food supply chain and (b) the ornamental horticulture sector.

Robert Jenrick: The Government has no plans to extend the scope of the Seasonal Worker route or the maximum visa grant beyond the existing six months.

Migrant Workers: Physiotherapy

Liz Twist: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will provide a breakdown by nation of origin of the number of physiotherapists granted visas in the last 12 months.

Robert Jenrick: Data for workers and temporary worker visas by occupation can be found at published occupation data  The Home Office does not routinely publish data that breaks this down by nationality or nation of origin.

Immigration: Eritrea and Sudan

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate she has made of the number of (a) Eritrean and (b) Sudanese children waiting for the outcome of their family reunification applications to the UK.

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate she has made of the number of (a) Sudanese and (b) other nationals residing in Sudan who (i) are waiting, (ii) have been waiting for more than two months and( iii) have been waiting for more than three months for the outcome of their family reunification applications to the UK.

Robert Jenrick: Information regarding processing times and nationality of applicants is not routinely published and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Offensive Weapons: Regulation

Pat McFadden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Government response to the Consultation on new knife legislation proposals to tackle the use of machetes and other bladed articles in crime, published on 30 August 2023, which (a) type and (b) size of (i) machetes, (ii) swords and (iii) other bladed weapons are covered by the proposals.

Chris Philp: Between 18 April 2023 and 6 June 2023, the Government ran a consultation on five proposals to tackle knife crime, including a targeted ban on certain types of machetes and knives which appear to be designed to look intimidating, but which have no practical purpose. The consultation followed engagement with the police who had raised concerns about the use of fantasy and zombie type machetes and knives in crime.On 30 August the Home Office published the government response to the consultation:www.gov.uk/government/consultations/machetes-and-other-bladed-articles-proposed-legislationAs set out in the consultation response, the government is currently considering the precise description of the items we wish to ban following feedback from respondents to the consultation. This includes considering the following features:- Cutting edges – plain and serrated- Sharp pointed end- Length of the blade- Holes in the blade- Other features - spikes, protuberances, hooksThese features are being considered to differentiate the types of machetes and knives which appear to have been designed to look intimidating and have no practical purpose, from the types of machetes and knives which are used for agriculture, gardening and a range of other jobs and pastimes.We have focused on the features commonly found in the knives and machetes that the police have brought to our attention as increasingly being used for serious crime and serious violence.As set out in the consultation response, during our conversations with the police swords were not raised as a specific concern and in discussion with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), we agreed to focus on zombie style machetes and knives in this consultation. However, we will keep this under review, should any operational need arise to extend the ban to swords and other bladed articles or offensive weapons.More widely, it is already an offence to have an article with a blade or point in a public place without good reason and this includes swords. Upon conviction for this offence a person can be liable for up to four years imprisonment.It is also an offence to sell any sword or machete to anyone under 18 and one of our proposals is to increase the maximum sentence for this offence to two years imprisonment.

Department for Transport

Railways: Freight

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to increase the amount of freight which is transported by rail.

Huw Merriman: The Government is committed to growing rail freight. We are undertaking a number of initiatives including setting a long-term rail freight growth target, which will be announced later this year, and a review of the Mode Shift Revenue Support scheme. I host bi-monthly roundtable meetings with key rail freight stakeholders. Network Rail also continues to work closely with freight operators to improve performance, with increases seen recently in Network Rail’s Freight Delivery Metric.

Railways: Suicide

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to support (a) British Transport Police staff, (b) train drivers and (c) other railway staff who respond to suicide-related incidents on the rail network.

Huw Merriman: Suicides on the railway can be deeply traumatic events for the rail staff and police officers involved. Every rail operator is required to have a live Suicide Prevention Plan which sets out how it will deliver each of the categories of the Rail Industry Suicide Stakeholder Group’s ‘9 Point Plan’. This includes how it will offer trauma management support and resilience training to all staff affected by suicides encountered whilst at work, trauma support training for those who manage or supervise staff that may be exposed to traumatic events, the support mechanisms it will put in place to detect emerging mental health problems in the workforce, and the support it will provide those who have been involved in or witnessed traumatic events. Emotional support is required to be in place to support those who may have witnessed a traumatic event or been made vulnerable to suicide as a result of one. The Samaritans offer an emotional support service where volunteers can provide a station presence to support those who need it following a traumatic event. British Transport Police has a full suite of support available to the officers and staff who may be exposed to traumatic events on the network, with a fully confidential Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) process available to all employees, a confidential professional telephone counselling service through the Employee Assistance programme, available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and a Wellbeing Hub detailing all other measures in which an individual is able to access support.

Railways: Staff

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential effect of (a) station staff and (b) on-board guards on the levels of passenger confidence for (i) all passengers and (b) vulnerable passengers.

Huw Merriman: The UK’s rail network is one of the safest in Europe and we will never compromise the safety of passengers on our railways. As the industry takes forward vital reforms, safety remains a top priority for all. When proposing major changes to ticket office opening hours, including closures, train operators are required to take into account the adequacy of the proposed alternatives in relation to the needs of all passengers; and to include this in the notice of the proposal sent to other operators and passenger groups. We would also expect operators to consider other equality related needs and make this clear in the notice sent to other operators and passenger groups. Together with the industry, we want to improve and modernise the passenger experience by moving staff out from ticket offices to provide more help and advice in customer focused roles. No currently staffed station will be unstaffed as a result of industry changes, and train operators will ensure staff are well located to meet passenger needs in future.

Railways: Tickets

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has had recent discussions with (a) women and (b) people with disabilities on consultations into the proposed closure of railway ticket offices.

Huw Merriman: We recognise that many passengers value the services provided by staff at ticket offices and the Department has held roundtable discussions with accessibility and passenger representative groups to discuss this matter. We have been clear that no currently staffed station should be unstaffed as a result of industry changes, and operators should ensure that staff are well located to meet passenger needs in future. This includes ensuring that staff are available to help passengers use ticket vending machines or their own devices to purchase tickets, and they can assist those who need additional support or do not wish to use digital tickets. Exact staffing arrangements would vary by train operator and station and are subject to ongoing discussions with staff and their trade union representatives. As the industry takes forward vital reforms, safety and accessibility remain a top priority for all.

Bus Services

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of trends in the number of bus services since 2019.

Mr Richard Holden: The policies of this government have significantly protected bus services from the impact of Covid-19.The Government provided over £2 billion in emergency and recovery funding from March 2020 to June 2023 to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic. Due to this funding, bus service provision in England outside London remained at over 85% of pre-COVID levels in 2021/22, despite patronage dropping to 10% of pre-pandemic levels during the height of the pandemic. We recently announced a long-term approach to protect and improve bus services backed by an additional £300 million from July 2023 until April 2025. £140 million of this funding will go to bus operators to support services, and the remaining £160 million will go to Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) to protect and enhance bus services, and support local fares initiatives. This funding is in addition to the over £1 billion the Government is providing to 34 counties, city regions and unitary authorities to help local areas level up their bus services and deliver their Bus Service Improvement Plans. We also make available up to £259 million every year for bus operators and LTAs to keep fares down and run services that might otherwise be unprofitable and could lead to cancellation through the Bus Service Operators Grant.

Driving Tests: Applications

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of driving tests that have been booked by automated bots and re-sold at an inflated price since 1 January 2023.

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency are taking to prevent the use of automated bots for booking driving tests.

Mr Richard Holden: The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is aware that there has been abuse of driving test booking systems, and is taking action to respond to it. The DVSA does not hold the number of driving tests that have been booked by automated bots and the DVSA is continuing to take steps to block cancellation services from accessing the booking system. These applications, however, are constantly evolving and changing, and the DVSA’s work on this is ongoing.

Lifeboats

Anthony Mangnall: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of adding independent lifeboat launch vehicles to the list of emergency vehicles that can use blue lights.

Mr Richard Holden: The Department and HM Coastguard are working with UK Search and Rescue (UKSAR) to create guidance and governance for SAR teams on the use of blue lights and warning devices. When approved, this will allow voluntary sector SAR bodies recognised by UKSAR and operating under the UKSAR safety framework, including independent lifeboat launch vehicles, to be lawfully fitted with blue flashing lamps and audible warning devices.

P&O Ferries: Insolvency Service

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the Insolvency Service investigation into P and O Ferries.

Mr Richard Holden: The Insolvency Service’s civil investigation into the circumstances surrounding the redundancies made by P&O Ferries is ongoing. It would not be appropriate to comment on the investigation at this time.

Railways: Tickets

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many hon. and Rt hon. Members have contacted him to oppose the closure of railway ticket offices.

Huw Merriman: We have received correspondence on the topic of ticket offices or similar from various parties, including Mayors and Councillors as well as Hon. and Rt hon. Members. Many of these items will have been sent to us by MPs on behalf of their constituents (often named in the correspondence), rather than being concerns from the MPs themselves.

High Speed 2 Line: Rother Valley

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many properties have been designated as falling within HS2's safeguarding boundaries in Rother Valley constituency.

Huw Merriman: There are 150 properties that are within HS2 Surface Safeguarding in the Rother Valley constituency.

High Speed 2 Line: Compulsory Purchase

Sir Gavin Williamson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of changing the timetable for the High Speed Rail Bill to complete compulsory purchase orders.

Huw Merriman: The duration of powers for the compulsory acquisition of property was determined by Parliament to be five years for both Phase One (London – West Midlands) and Phase 2a (West Midlands – Crewe) of HS2. In light of lessons learned on Phase One in particular, the High Speed Rail (Crewe – Manchester) Bill proposes that the equivalent powers should be of eight years’ duration for the Phase 2b Western Leg.

High Speed 2 Line: Compulsory Purchase

Saqib Bhatti: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the (a) compensation claims process and (b) levels of evidence required for compensation in HS2 compulsory purchase negotiations.

Huw Merriman: My Department works with HS2 Ltd to deliver a robust compensation process, and keeps the compensation schemes available to those affected by HS2 under ongoing review. This applies to the arrangements for compulsory acquisition. A formal review of all schemes was last conducted in 2020 but my Department works closely with HS2 Ltd to monitor and appraise the schemes, with the presumption that they should be easy to navigate and that the level of evidence required is appropriate and proportionate. HS2 Ltd has published comprehensive guidance setting out the evidence that should be provided when claiming compensation.

High Speed 2 Line

Sir Gavin Williamson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the Final Land Acquisition Boundary process for HS2 has been completed; and when he plans to publish those documents.

Huw Merriman: The Final Land Acquisition Boundary (FLAB) process is a fixed process undertaken over several months to determine and assure each individual land requirement in advance of a notice being served. It is a collaborative process between all key stakeholders including construction partners to review the Land Request requirements, review progress of actions against any known complex issues, and ensure compliance with Undertakings & Assurances and mitigation of risks. It is an iterative process and will be ongoing as the HS2 programme progresses.

High Speed 2 Line: Compulsory Purchase

Sir Gavin Williamson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, in how many and what proportion of compulsory purchase cases for HS2 had payment not been received by the former owners (a) two, (b) three (c) four and (d) more than four weeks after HS2 Limited had taken ownership of the property in each of the last 12 months.

Huw Merriman: When a property is being acquired by compulsory purchase, HS2 Ltd will make payment of compensation subject to section 52 of the Land Compensation Act 1973. When an Advance Payment Request (APR) is made, it must be done so in writing and usually will be submitted by the claimants’ Agent. Ninety-seven per cent of valid APRs in the six months to July 2023 were paid on time. On Phase One, if a party makes a valid APR under section 52 of the Land Compensation Act 1973, payment must be made by either 3 months from the date of request, or, on the vesting date, whichever is the later. On Phase 2a, if a party makes a valid APR under section 52 and the Secretary of State for Transport executes a General Vesting Declaration, then HS2 Ltd must pay:- on the date the General Vesting Declaration is executed (or notice of entry is served), or,- if later than this date, within 2 months of the date of the request (if full details were provided), or- the date HS2 Ltd received the full details needed to make an assessment of compensation. If HS2 Ltd can reach an agreement on the request, they will pay the full value of the advance payment request. If they cannot reach an agreement, HS2 Ltd will pay 90% of their estimate of compensation (this may be less than the claimant’s agent’s estimate). If the owner identifies further reasons for compensation after the first advance payment has been received, they can send further requests.

Railways: Tree Planting

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an estimate of the number of trees planted by Network Rail in the last 10 years that have subsequently died.

Huw Merriman: Neither the Department nor Network Rail hold this information.

Railways: Environment Protection

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of changes in the level of rail use on the environment.

Huw Merriman: Rail is a green mode of transport and can contribute to transport decarbonisation by moving goods and people from more polluting modes. In 2021, greenhouse gas emissions from rail (passenger and freight) made up just 1.4% of the UK's domestic transport emissions, while 7.4% of passenger miles travelled in Great Britain were by rail. Both historic and forecasted future passenger demand is taken into account when developing policies and evaluating the carbon emissions from rail.

High Speed 2 Line: Rother Valley

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much land has been designated as falling within HS2's safeguarding boundaries in Rother Valley constituency.

Huw Merriman: 3.49 square kilometres of land has been designated as falling within HS2 Surface Safeguarding in the Rother Valley constituency.

Railways: Freight

Jamie Stone: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of increasing the provision of incentive schemes that encourage businesses to shift from road to rail freight.

Huw Merriman: The Government is determined to encourage a move from road to rail for transporting goods. For example, initiatives currently include setting a long-term rail freight growth target and the Department’s Mode Shift Revenue Support (MSRS) scheme, which assists rail freight operating companies with the costs associated with running freight on rail instead of road, where rail transport is more expensive. A review of the MSRS scheme, which runs until 31 March 2025, will commence soon.

Railways: Tree Planting

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many trees have been planted by Network Rail in each of the last 10 years.

Huw Merriman: Neither the Department nor Network Rail hold this information.

Railways: Coronavirus

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he is taking steps to encourage rail operators to reinstate services which were cut during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Huw Merriman: As the pandemic has changed travel habits, the Department expects train operators to use this opportunity to reassess their services to provide efficient rail timetables that respond to new passenger travel patterns, are fit for the future, and carefully balance cost, capacity and performance.

Railways: Tickets

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what sum was spent on (a) building and (b) refurbishing ticket offices in England in the last year.

Huw Merriman: The Department does not hold information on rail station ticket office refurbishment works as it is a matter for the train operating companies who are responsible for maintaining the stations.

Railways: Tickets

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many rail journeys were undertaken by passengers who purchased their tickets from a ticket office in (a) 2021 and (b) 2022.

Huw Merriman: In 2022/23, around 1 in 10 transactions occurred at a ticket office; this is down from around 1 in 3 a decade earlier and equates to 13% of total revenue.

Railway Network: Cybersecurity

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to safeguard (a) digital signal systems and (b) other digital critical infrastructure on the rail network from (i) cyber attacks and (ii) failures which risk safety.

Huw Merriman: The Department for Transport takes transport security seriously. We work closely with industry to identify and mitigate security and safety risks. The Secretary of State for Transport has a regulatory role as competent authority under the Network and Information Systems Regulations 2018 and is therefore responsible for ensuring cyber security standards are met by Operators of Essential Services across the rail network in England, Wales and Scotland.DfT encourages industry to follow guidance from the National Cyber Security Centre to ensure digital systems and infrastructure are resilient to cyber-attacks and safety failures.Network Rail, Great Britain's mainline railway infrastructure manager, are charged with the management of signalling and other systems that are critical to the safe and efficient delivery of the rail service. Network Rail have a fully embedded security management system that provides the systems, processes, resources and policies to effectively counter cyber threats, focusing on prevention and protection of systems accompanied with a strong monitoring and response capability. In addition to compliance with the NIS regulations, Network Rail adopt best practice from international standards such as ISO27011 [information security management systems] and IEC 62443 [cyber security for industrial automation and control systems] and were part of the drafting group for the forthcoming IEC 63452 "Cyber Security for Railway Applications" standard, recognising their leading role in railway cyber security.Digital critical infrastructure on the railway, including digital signalling systems (ETCS), are failsafe by design. Digital signalling offers many additional safety benefits over and above conventional coloured light signalling systems.

Renewable Fuels

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department is taking steps to help increase the use of hydrotreated vegetable oil fuel.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions has he had with Cabinet colleagues on reducing the fuel duty on Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil fuels.

Jesse Norman: The Government recognises the potential carbon-reduction benefits of drop-in low carbon fuels, such as sustainable hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO). HVO is eligible for Renewable Transport Fuel Certificates (RTFCs) under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) and, where they are produced from waste, they are eligible to receive twice the reward in certificates under the RTFO scheme. The Department engages across government on how to ensure that appropriate incentives are in place to encourage the production and use of low carbon fuels. Matters of taxation, including fuel duty, remain the responsibility of the Treasury. The Government keeps all taxes under review, and any changes are announced by the Chancellor at fiscal events.

Electric Vehicles: Charging Points

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the proportion of electric vehicle charging points located in rural areas.

Jesse Norman: As of 1st April 2023, the proportion of charging devices and sockets located in rural areas in England was approximately 26%.  RuralTotalPublic Charging Devices5,70034,203Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS)9,84434,556Electric Vehicle Chargepoint Grant (EVCG)3541,615Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS)78,393292,354Domestic Recharging Scheme (DRS)10,54635,187 This data represents those charging points paid for under government schemes, or recorded on Zapmaps, and likely underestimates the total amount of chargers. Today, the majority of electric car charging happens at home and the Government expects home charging will remain central to the future charging behaviour of drivers. The full number of home chargers is not recorded.

Electric Vehicles: Charging Points

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he has taken to support the installation of electric vehicle charging points for people living in (a) residential properties without a driveway and (b) tower blocks.

Jesse Norman: The £381 million Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund will support local authorities in England to work with industry to provide tens of thousands of local chargepoints and transform the availability of charging for drivers without off-street parking. Local authorities will also continue to benefit from the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme. So far, funding has been awarded for the installation of over 18,000 chargepoints. Grants of up to £30,000 are available to help with the cost of building and installation work to install multiple chargepoints in residential car parks, such as those serving high-rise accommodation.  In addition, the Government provides grants to support people living in flats or rental accommodation with an off-street parking place. Grants of up to £350 are available towards the purchase and installation of a chargepoint.

Railways: Vacancies

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many safety critical vacancies there were on the rail network as of 20 July 2023.

Huw Merriman: Across the rail industry there are a variety of roles where people have safety duties and responsibilities within their job remit, which are discharged in accordance with health and safety law.However, definitions of what constitutes a ‘safety critical role’ vary across the rail industry, so it is not possible to provide a definitive answer to this question.

Railways: Industrial Disputes

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he last met with (a) representatives from the Rail Delivery Group and (b) general secretaries of (i) RMT and (ii) ASLEF to discuss ongoing industrial disputes within the rail industry.

Huw Merriman: The Department regularly holds meetings with the Rail Delivery Group and industry about the ongoing industrial action and the need to reform and modernise rail. The Government has no formal role in the negotiations but has facilitated meetings between trade unions and their employers in seeking to bring the disputes to an end. It has always been the role of employers to negotiate with unions, as the pay offers are put forward by the train operators.

Railway Stations: Tickets

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to help ensure that vulnerable people are not put at risk in stations without ticket offices.

Huw Merriman: When proposing major changes to ticket office opening hours, including closures, operators were required to take into account the adequacy of the proposed alternatives in relation to the needs of all passengers; and to include this in the notice of the proposal sent to other operators and passenger groups. All operators prepared Equality Impact Assessments and published these on their websites. Following the end of the consultation period the independent passenger bodies (Transport Focus and London TravelWatch) are engaging with train operators on the basis of the consultation responses they have received and the criteria they have set out. We expect train operators to work collaboratively with passenger bodies in the coming weeks, to listen to concerns raised, such as the impacts on vulnerable people, and to refine their proposals accordingly. As the industry takes forward vital reforms, safety and accessibility remain a top priority for all. The British Transport Police continue to support the rail network to ensure the safety and security of both passengers and rail staff.

Railway Stations: Tickets

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of ticket office closures on wheelchair users.

Huw Merriman: When proposing major changes to ticket office opening hours, including closures, operators were required to take into account the adequacy of the proposed alternatives in relation to the needs of all passengers; and to include this in the notice of the proposal sent to other operators and passenger groups. All operators prepared Equality Impact Assessments and published these on their websites. Together with industry, we want to improve and modernise the passenger experience by moving staff out from ticket offices to provide more help and advice in customer focused roles. The consultation period has now closed, and we now expect train operators to work collaboratively with the passenger bodies in the coming weeks, to listen to the concerns raised and to refine their proposals accordingly.

Driving Tests: Dyslexia

Carol Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing adaptations for people with dyslexia sitting the driving theory test.

Carol Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what percentage of driving theory test slots are allocated to learners with dyslexia.

Mr Richard Holden: The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is dedicated to ensuring all candidates have equal and fair access to the driving theory test. The DVSA has worked with the British Dyslexia Association to implement changes to the theory test to make it more accessible for learners allowing them to have their knowledge and understanding checked, without putting them at an undue disadvantage. These changes include:removing continuation questionsadding more picturesreplacing words like “increase” and “decrease” with words like “faster” and “slower”increasing the font sizeremoving red font Candidates who have reading difficulties can request an English or Welsh voiceover. This provides candidates with headphones and enables them to listen to the questions and possible answers as many times as needed. Theory test slots are open to all candidates, but those needing extra support, such as candidates with dyslexia, can request other adaptions including:additional time to take the test (up to double time)someone to read the questions out and record the answers for the candidateusing an oral language modifier, who will reword the questions making them easier to understand, changing non-technical words and phrases, and the order of a sentencetaking the test in a separate room If a dyslexic candidate needs something more bespoke, such as certain colour overlays, the DVSA will aim to meet their need. The DVSA will continue to look at ways in which it can further improve the theory test for candidates with learning difficulties.

British Transport Police: Detection Rates

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the British Transport Police Authority publication entitled British Transport Police Fund Annual Report and Accounts for the year ending 31 March 2023, page 16, published on 14 August 2023, whether the reported figures for (a) sexual offences and (b) crimes involving harassment are each a subset of the total reported figures for violent crimes against women and girls; and whether the reported figures for violent crimes against women and girls used in footnote 3 is a subset of the figures referenced in footnote 2 for violence against the person.

Huw Merriman: It is correct that the reported figures for (a) sexual offences and (b) crimes involving harassment are each a subset of the total reported figures for violent crimes against women and girls. In regard to footnote 3, the figures are not a subset of footnote 2. These include violent crimes against women and girls including violence against the person offences, alongside sexual and public order offences, where the victim stated is female.

Railways: Tickets

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer to Question 194787, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of publishing correspondence with the (a) Chair of the Rail Delivery Group and (b) chief executive officers of train operating companies which have passenger service contracts with his Department on the proposals to close ticket offices.

Huw Merriman: The Department has made no such assessment.

Railway Stations: Staff

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to help ensure that support is available in rail stations for people who have issue with which automated systems cannot help.

Huw Merriman: We have been clear that no currently staffed station should be unstaffed as a result of industry changes, and operators should ensure that staff are well located to meet passenger needs in future. This includes ensuring that staff remain available to help passengers use ticket vending machines, or their own devices to purchase tickets and they can assist those who need additional support or do not wish to use digital tickets. Exact staffing arrangements would vary by train operator and station and are subject to ongoing discussions with staff and their trade union representatives.

Railway Stations: Tickets

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to help ensure that assistance is provided at stations without ticket offices for people who have difficulties with automated systems.

Huw Merriman: Together with industry, we want to improve and modernise the passenger experience by moving staff out from ticket offices to provide more help and advice in customer focused roles. The consultation period has now closed, and we expect train operators to work collaboratively with the passenger bodies in the coming weeks, to listen to the concerns raised and to refine their proposals accordingly. We have been clear that no currently staffed station should be unstaffed as a result of industry changes, and operators should ensure that staff are well located to meet passenger needs in future. This includes ensuring that staff remain available to help passengers use ticket vending machines, or their own devices to purchase tickets and they can assist those who need additional support or do not wish to use digital tickets. Exact staffing arrangements would vary by train operator and station and are subject to ongoing discussions with staff and their trade union representatives.

Treasury

Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023

Beth Winter: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Treasury is taking to implement the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023.

Gareth Davies: HM Treasury will make provisions for implementing the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 when it comes into effect in April 2025.

Public Houses: Government Assistance

Duncan Baker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has had recent discussions with relevant stakeholders on providing increased financial support for pubs in the Autumn Statement 2023.

Gareth Davies: HM Treasury ministers and officials regularly engage with stakeholders as an important part of the policy development process. The Government believes that pubs make an important contribution to our culture, fostering a sense of place and community, and the UK economy. Our ‘Brexit Pubs Guarantee,’ confirms that the duty on a draught pint will always be lower than its equivalent in a supermarket. And the new alcohol duty system implemented in August of this year included a new Draught Relief that provides a significant duty discount on alcohol sold in containers of 20 litres or more in the on-trade. In addition, pubs will benefit from business rates support worth £13.6bn over the next five years, including a more generous Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) relief scheme that has increased from 50% to 75% relief in 2023-24.

Crown Estate: Derelict Land

Julian Knight: To ask the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, what steps the Crown Estate is taking to release brownfield and derelict sites to (a) local authorities and (b) the private sector for housing.

Gareth Davies: The strategic direction of the Crown Estate is set by its Board, independent of Government, and the day-to-day operations is run by its executive. The Crown Estate has set an ambitious strategy that includes pursuing development in key regeneration locations that fall within its direct ownership, working in partnership with local authorities and others. In instances where it is not possible for The Crown Estate to develop opportunities, which is the case on ownerless land, there is a well-established process for these sites to be brought back into beneficial use which includes engaging, where appropriate, with local authorities and/or the private sector.

Treasury: Freedom of Information

Julian Knight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps their Department is taking to improve the response time to FOI requests.

Julian Knight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the average time taken by his Department to respond to freedom of information requests in the 2022-23 financial year.

Gareth Davies: The Department continually monitors and looks for ways to improve its FOI performance.Official National Statistics on FOI performance for all central government departments and other monitored bodies can be found here: Freedom of Information statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Treasury: Correspondence

Julian Knight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps they are taking to reduce backlogs of Member correspondence in their office.

Gareth Davies: By collaborating with other government departments to share best practice and build on further improvements in technology to enhance the initial allocation stages of the correspondence process, significant progress has been made to eliminate any backlog. So far this quarter, the Treasury has responded to 86% of cases from Members within 20 working days. The small number of cases which are over 20 working days old are more complex. These are actively being worked on so we can reply to Members as soon as possible.

Landfill Tax

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment has he made of the potential impact of the level of landfill tax on the (a) amount and (b) proportion of waste sent to landfill.

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the announcement in the Autumn Budget 2021 that Landfill Tax would increase in 2023 and 2024 in line with RPI, what level of RPI was used to determine the increase in Landfill Tax in 2023; and if he will make an assessment of the impact on Landfill Tax revenues if the tax rate had been uprated in line with current RPI.

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to Annex A of the Spring Budget 2023: Overview of Tax Legislation and Rates, published on 15 March 2023, what measure of RPI was used to set the Landfill Tax rate from 1 April 2024; and on what evidential basis this level of RPI was chosen.

Gareth Davies: At Autumn Budget 2021 and Spring Budget 2023 the government pre-announced Landfill Tax rates would increase in line with RPI inflation, from April 2023 and April 2024 respectively. Pre-announcing Landfill Tax rates provides businesses with greater certainty and supports investment in more sustainable alternatives to landfill. To calculate Landfill Tax rates applicable from April 2023, the government used a forecast of RPI for the period 2023Q2 to 2024Q2, provided by the OBR. The same methodology was used to calculate Landfill Tax rates applicable from April 2024. Landfill Tax works hand in hand with a wider package of measures set out in the 2018 Resources and Waste Strategy for England which are designed to encourage waste to be managed more sustainably. Since 2000, local authority waste sent to landfill in England has fallen by 90%.

Treasury: Public Opinion

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the total money spent by his Department on (a) focus groups, (b) online, (c) telephone and (d) face-to-face opinion polling to inform his Department's policy-making process between (i) 1 August to 30 September 2022, (ii) 1 October to 31 December 2022, (iii) 1 January to 31 March 2023, (iv) 1 April to 30 June 2023 and (v) 1 July to 4 September 2023.

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which companies his Department has used to conduct (a) focus groups, (b) online, (c) telephone and (d) face-to-face opinion polling to inform his Department’s policy-making process between the dates of 1 August 2022 and 4 September 2023; and whether contracts to carry out such work were (i) tendered and (ii) agreed by his Department.

Gareth Davies: Details of HM Treasury contracts above £10,000, including procurement routes, are published on Contracts Finder: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search.

Alcoholic Drinks: Excise Duties

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has received representations from (a) CAMRA and (b) organisers of beer and cider festivals on the effect of the draught relief provisions in the Finance (No. 2) Act 2023 on their ability to sell alcoholic drinks in sealed containers of less than 20 litres during such events.

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to extend the draught beer relief to takeaway sales by licensed premises whose primary business is the sale of draught products for consumption on the premises.

Gareth Davies: My officials and I have engaged extensively with members of the beer and cider industries, including CAMRA, throughout the policy development of the alcohol reforms. This includes discussions about Draught Relief. The core objective of Draught Relief is to recognise the cultural importance of pubs and other on-trade venues as community hubs and to encourage responsible drinking in supervised settings. The current policy does not prevent pubs and other on-trade venues from selling takeaway pints. Businesses have the ability to purchase full duty paid containers should they wish to decant from the container and sell beverages for their customers to consume off-site.

Freezing of Assets: Russia

Dame Margaret Hodge: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the total value of assets frozen under the Russia regime is since the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

Dame Margaret Hodge: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the value is of assets frozen under the Russia regime that were (a) Russian state assets held by sanctioned (i) Russian and (ii) commercial banks and (b) other state assets and foreign currency reserves held as, but not limited to, securities or deposits in Pound Sterling in the period since the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

Gareth Davies: Between February and October 2022, £18.39 billion in frozen funds were reported to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), part of HM Treasury, in relation to the Russia sanctions regime. This figure is provided in aggregate so as not to disclose the value of any funds held by particular individuals. HM Treasury does not break down reported assets in the manner requested.  An updated value of frozen assets reported to OFSI will be published later this year, in OFSI’s 2022-2023 Annual Review, in Autumn 2023.

Bank Services: Interest Rates

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to require banks to offer interest rates on saving accounts at least at the level of the Bank of England interest rate.

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to issue penalties to banks that offer savings accounts with interest rate levels below the Bank of England Bank Rate.

Andrew Griffith: The Chancellor has made clear his expectation that savers benefit from rising interest rates. On 28 June, the Chancellor secured agreement with the regulators to act urgently in areas where consumers need most support. This included agreeing with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that it would report on the savings market. As part of this review, the FCA published a 14-point action plan setting out expectations of firms and actions it will take to ensure savers are not missing out on Bank Rate rises. The FCA has committed to review the timing of savings rates changes after any changes in the Bank of England’s Base Rate, and to publish analysis of firms’ easy access savings rates, listing best to worst, every six months. In addition, the FCA’s new Consumer Duty requires firms to explain the pace and extent of their pass through of interest rates, and how they are proactively supporting savers to switch to high interest rate products.   Under the Consumer Duty, firms are required to ensure that the savings products they offer delivery fair value to customers and the FCA will act if it finds this is not the case. The FCA will publish an update on this, including any steps it plans to take, later in autumn 2023.

Banks: Gosport

Dame Caroline Dinenage: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the impact of high street bank branch closures on people in Gosport constituency.

Dame Caroline Dinenage: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of access to (a) cash and (b) banking services in (a) Gosport constituency and (b) England; and what steps he is taking to ensure adequate access to (i) cash and (ii) banking services in those areas in the next five years.

Andrew Griffith: The Government believes that all customers, wherever they live, should have appropriate access to banking services. Nonetheless, decisions on opening and closing branches are a commercial issue for banks and building societies. The Government does not intervene in these decisions or make direct assessments of these branch networks. Guidance from the Financial Conduct Authority sets out its expectation of firms when they are deciding to reduce their physical branches or the number of free-to-use ATMs. Firms are expected to carefully consider the impact of planned branch closures on the everyday banking and cash access needs of their customers and consider possible alternative access arrangements. This ensures that the implementation of closure decisions is undertaken in a way that treats customers fairly. Alternative options for access to banking can be via telephone banking, through digital means such as mobile or online banking, and the Post Office. The Post Office Banking Framework allows 99% of personal banking and 95% of business banking customers to deposit cheques, check their balance and withdraw and deposit cash at 11,500 Post Office branches in the UK. New shared banking hubs are also being introduced, providing basic banking services and dedicated space where community bankers from major banks can meet customers of that bank.  Following successful pilots Cash Access UK Ltd is rolling out shared banking hubs and other new shared facilities in communities across the UK. To date, industry has committed to deliver Banking Hubs in 80 locations. Further information on Banking Hubs is available at: https://www.cashaccess.co.uk/ Regarding access to cash, LINK (the scheme that runs the UK's largest ATM network) has commitments to protect the broad geographic spread of free-to-use ATMs and is held to account against these commitments by the Payment Systems Regulator. LINK has committed to protect free-to-use ATMs more than one kilometre away from the next nearest free ATM or Post Office, and free access to cash on high streets that do not have a free-to-use ATM or a Post Office counter within one kilometre. Furthermore, LINK operates a scheme to enable communities with poor access to cash to request an ATM. LINK publishes the total number of free-to-use and pay-to-use ATMs across the UK on a regular basis. LINK’s Monthly ATM Footprint Report also publishes information on the break down by constituency. Further information is available on LINK’s website: https://www.link.co.uk/ The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 provides the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) with responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of cash access services. The FCA is currently developing its approach and will consult in due course.

Life Sciences: Government Assistance

Dr Kieran Mullan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he is taking to support the growth of the life sciences sector.

Gareth Davies: Life sciences is one of the government’s priority growth sectors. In May, the Chancellor announced a bold new policy package backed by over £650m funding, reaffirming the government’s commitment to supporting a thriving life sciences industry. This follows a number of initiatives announced at Spring Budget that will support the sector, including £10m extra funding for our medicines regulator the MHRA, full expensing of capital expenditure and reforms to R&D tax credits.

Treasury: Solihull

Julian Knight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if they will take steps to visit Solihull constituency in 2023.

Gareth Davies: Any visits by the Chancellor are subject to diary constraints.

Energy: Prices

Dr Kieran Mullan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he is taking to support businesses with energy prices.

Gareth Davies: The Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) provides all eligible businesses and other non-domestic energy users with a discount on high energy bills for 12 months from 1 April 2023 until 31 March 2024. It also provides businesses in sectors with particularly high levels of energy use and trade intensity with a higher level of support. This follows the unprecedented package of support for non-domestic users last winter provided through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.

Money

Holly Mumby-Croft: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to facilitate the acceptance of cash across the UK.

Andrew Griffith: The government recognises that, to support people’s ability to continue to transact using cash, businesses need reasonable access to cash deposit facilities to support them to keep accepting cash. The government therefore legislated through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to establish the Financial Conduct Authority as the lead regulator for access to cash and provide it with responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of cash withdrawal and deposit facilities. The government considers that this legislation will support organisations, including local businesses, to continue accepting cash by ensuring that they have reasonable access to cash deposit facilities.

Financial Services and Markets Act 2023

Alun Cairns: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to help regulators implement their secondary objectives set out in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023.

Andrew Griffith: The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) are responsible for operationalising their new secondary objectives to facilitate the international competitiveness of the UK economy, and its growth in the medium to long-term. The regulators have already begun to set out how they will approach the new objectives, for example, in the PRA’s September 2022 discussion paper on its future approach to policy (https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/prudential-regulation/publication/2022/september/pra-approach-to-policy) and the FCA’s December 2022 paper on its implementation of the outcomes of the Future Regulatory Framework Review (https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/corporate-documents/future-regulatory-framework-review-reforms). To support the introduction of the new objectives, the Government published a Call for Proposals, which closed on 4 July, seeking views on what additional metrics the regulators should publish to support scrutiny of their work embedding and advancing their new secondary objectives. The Treasury is analysing the responses and will respond in due course. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 requires the regulators’ Annual Reports to include an explanation of how they have advanced the new secondary objectives. In addition, the Act requires the regulators to publish separate reports on how they have embedded and advanced the new objectives 12 and 24 months after they come into force. This will support scrutiny of how the new objectives have been operationalised. The Government is confident that the introduction of the new growth and competitiveness objectives will lead to a step-change in the regulators’ approach.

Mortgages

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish guidance to encourage mortgage lenders to consider an applicant’s ability to service a loan on the basis of rental monies paid rather than a multiple of salary.

Andrew Griffith: The Government is committed to helping as many first-time buyers as possible get onto the housing ladder and agrees that a history of paying rent should be able to help with this. In 2017, the Government launched the Rent Recognition Challenge: a £2 million competition challenging the UK’s world-leading tech firms to develop innovative applications to enable tenants to record and share their rental payment data with lenders and credit reference agencies. The Government encourages all renters to consider what options are available to them with regards to rent recognition.

Credit: Fraud

Hilary Benn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what security checks financial institutions are required to make for credit card applications in order to prevent identity fraud.

Andrew Griffith: The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is responsible for regulating the consumer credit market. FCA rules dictate that firms (including those offering credit cards) must have adequate policies and procedures in place to counter the risk that they might be used in financial crime, such as identity fraud. Furthermore, firms must ensure that the systems and controls monitoring these are subject to regular assessment. Firms are also required by law to verify someone’s identity when they establish a business relationship with them. This includes when opening a credit account such as a credit card. Firms are required to take a proportionate approach commensurate with their assessment of the risk. Each firm will have their own policies on identification, customer due diligence and on the circumstances in which additional security checks should be undertaken. Firms are assisted in making such policies through industry produced guidance. The government has also published a Good Practice Guide for firms on how to prove and verify someone’s identity, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/identity-proofing-and-verification-of-an-individual/how-to-prove-and-verify-someones-identity

Financial Conduct Authority

Mary Kelly Foy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps to commission a survey into public trust in the Financial Conduct Authority.

Andrew Griffith: Public trust in financial regulators is important. The Government has no current plans to commission a survey into public trust in the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) but will keep such option under review in the future.

Lex Greensill: Credit Suisse

Nick Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the role of Lex Greensill in Credit Suisse's risk management failures.

Andrew Griffith: The regulation of individual firms is a matter for the independent financial regulators to comment on.

Child Trust Fund: South West

Luke Pollard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many Child Trust Funds have been created for children in (a) Plymouth, (b) Devon and (c) the South West.

Luke Pollard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many Child Trust Funds created for children in (a) Plymouth, (b) Devon and (c) the South West are unclaimed.

Luke Pollard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the (a) average and (b) total value of unclaimed Child Trust Funds for children in (i) Plymouth, (ii) Devon and (iii) the South West.

Andrew Griffith: Information on Child Trust Funds as of 5th April 2022, are available in HMRC’s Annual Savings Statistics. This includes figures on averages and total market value, but not by geographic location. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-savings-statistics-2023 A geographical breakdown the accounts created or unclaimed, or their average or total value, could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.

Renewable Energy: Supply Chains

Clive Lewis: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 6.11 in the report of the Royal Trustees on the Sovereign Grant Review 2023, if he will take steps to ensure that the increased surplus to the Exchequer from the Crown Estate in (a) 2023-24 and (b) 2024-25 is used to train UK resident workers to meet the demand for supply chain jobs in Renewable Energy Zones.

Gareth Davies: The government continues to work with industry, The Crown Estate and other partners to support the UK's offshore wind manufacturing sector. Funding is allocated in line with the government’s overall priorities, primarily through the spending review process, with the overall amount of spending informed by the wider fiscal position.

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Science: Research

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 7 November 2022 to Question 80698 on Science: Research, what recent progress has been made on a new funding vehicle to mobilise ODA research activity.

George Freeman: The Department has received HMT approval to launch the Official Development Assistance (ODA) component of the International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF). ISPF will have up to £200 million ODA this Spending Review to deliver research and innovation partnerships with developing countries. This follows the announcement of £119 million for non-ODA partnerships when ISPF launched in December 2022.

Innovation: Young People

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much her Department spent on the Young Innovators Awards 2022 to 2023.

George Freeman: The Young Innovators Awards programme is delivered by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation. The grant spend for Young Innovators Awards in financial year 2022/23 was approximately £1.4 million. This includes spend associated with Young Innovators Awards 2021/22, Young Innovators Follow on Fund 2021/22 and Young Innovators Awards 2022/23.

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

STEP Programme

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department plans to provide funding to help deliver the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) prototype fusion power plant by 2040.

Andrew Bowie: Following machinery of government changes, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is the sponsor department for the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) which is delivering the STEP programme. The Government has committed £240 million towards the first phase of the STEP programme. Work to develop a detailed concept design is on track. The UKAEA is setting up UK Industrial Fusion Solutions Ltd (UKIFS), a special purpose vehicle that will develop and build the STEP prototype power plant. Early site development for STEP is already underway at West Burton, Nottinghamshire, to transform the site of a former coal-fired power station into a global hub for fusion innovation.

Sizewell C Power Station: Construction

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will publish (a) all sources of Government funding used for the development of Sizewell C nuclear power station, (b) the total expenditure from each funding stream and (c) a breakdown of (i) current and (ii) projected expenditure for each financial year since the start of the project; and if she will make a statement.

Andrew Bowie: The Government’s investment in Sizewell C has been funded from the Department's capital budgets agreed at the Autumn Statement 2022. As a shareholder in Sizewell C, the Government announced an investment of £679 million in November 2022 and made available further amounts of £170 million and £341 million this year to continue driving forward the project’s development, towards the aim of making a final investment decision on a large-scale nuclear project this Parliament. This investment came on top of £100 million invested by EDF in Sizewell C in January 2022 which was provided by the Government through the Combined Option Agreement, this used departmental budgets in the financial year 2021/2022. Further details are commercially sensitive, and it would not be appropriate to disclose more at this time.

Sizewell C Power Station: Construction

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how much funding the Government has provided for the development of Sizewell C nuclear power station, broken down by (a) funding stream and (b) government department.

Andrew Bowie: As a shareholder in Sizewell C, the Government announced an investment of £679 million in November 2022 and made available further amounts of £170 million and £341 million this year to continue driving forward the project’s development, towards the aim of making a final investment decision on a large-scale nuclear project this Parliament. The Government’s investment in Sizewell C has been funded from the Department's capital budgets agreed at the Autumn Statement 2022. This investment came on top of £100 million invested by EDF in Sizewell C in January 2022 which was provided by the Government through the Combined Option Agreement, this used departmental budgets in the financial year 2021/2022.

Electric Cables: Costs

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she has made a comparative estimate of the cost of (a) modern cable ploughing technology against (b) traditional overhead pylon technology in regard to electricity transmission infrastructure.

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what discussions she has had with the Welsh Government over the suitability of modern cable ploughing technology for the installation of 132kV electricity transmission infrastructure.

Andrew Bowie: The Government consultation on the draft energy National Policy Statements closed on 23 June and we are reviewing the responses. This included that overhead lines should be the strong starting presumption for electricity networks developments but that in nationally designated landscapes the strong starting presumption will be that the applicant should underground the relevant section of the line. Decisions on which technology would be used for construction would be a matter for the developer. Government officials engage and meet with all devolved administrations, including Welsh Government, as required for policy development and evaluation.

Electricity: Prices

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps her Department (a) has taken and (b) plans to take to lower electricity running costs.

Amanda Solloway: We are reducing the cost of electricity by boosting our diverse sources of homegrown energy, such as renewables. We are also reducing our dependency on imported gas and have set out our long-term ambition on new nuclear power.

Fuel Poverty: Rural Areas

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether her Department (a) has made and (b) plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing cost caps for off-grid homes.

Amanda Solloway: The Government has previously carefully considered the introduction of a price cap for off grid fuel customers, however the Department’s analysis indicates that a cap would not be in the long-term interests of consumers. The markets for alternative fuels – including heating oil, coal, Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG), and biomass – benefit from a large range of suppliers in an open market. The off-grid fuel market does not share the same characteristics as the Gas and Electricity market which is regulated and capped by Ofgem.

Energy: Meters

Kim Leadbeater: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that temperamental smart meters are not given as reasons by energy providers to prevent customers from switching suppliers.

Amanda Solloway: The energy supplier switching process will work as intended whether smart meters are operating in smart mode or not at the time of the switch request. When consumers do request to switch they are protected through Ofgem’s Guaranteed Standards. Ofgem are responsible for regulating energy suppliers against these obligations in this area.

Petrol: Prices

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she is taking steps to ensure (a) fair pricing and (b) continuity across regions for petrol.

Amanda Solloway: The Government will consult on the design of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) recommendations to create a statutory open data scheme for road fuel prices and an ongoing road fuels monitoring function this autumn. These two recommendations twill help to facilitate competition and fair pricing, nationally and locally, as well as helping tackle regional price disparities. Until we can put these changes on a statutory footing, the government has supported the CMA to establish an interim voluntary fuel price data sharing scheme, encouraging retailers to share prices daily. The CMA will also continue to monitor fuel prices using its existing powers.

Ofgem

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many and what proportion of (a) board members and (b) employees of Ofgem have previous experience in the sectors that they regulate.

Amanda Solloway: Ofgem Board members have a wide range of skills and experiences that are relevant to their role. Bios of the Ofgem Board members, and those that sit on the Executive Committee, are available on the Ofgem website: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/about-us/our-structure-and-leadership/gema-and-executive-committee-members Ofgem employees are civil servants with individual skills and experiences. Many will have spent some time employed in the energy sector and some on secondment. Data are not available that would enable a proportion to be estimated.

Energy: Consumers

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 12 June 2023 to Question 187027 on Medical Equipment: Energy, what her Department's expected timescale is for launching a consultation on consumer protection in the energy markets.

Amanda Solloway: As set out in the autumn statement, we are exploring the best approach to consumer protection, as part of wider retail market reforms.

Warm Home Discount Scheme

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2023 to Question 143717 on Warm Home Discount Scheme, if she will provide an update on (a) the progress of the evaluation of the Warm Home Discount scheme and (b) when details of the evaluation will be published; and if she will make a statement.

Amanda Solloway: The Government will shortly undertake a three-year evaluation of the scheme, which we expect will conclude in autumn 2026. The Government intends to publish this final report.

Warm Home Discount Scheme

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many households received funding from the Warm Home Discount Scheme in 2022-23; and how much funding was made available for the Warm Home Discount Scheme in that year.

Amanda Solloway: The official statistics showed that 2.50 million households received a rebate under the Core Group in winter 2022/23, providing £374 million of support to low-income and vulnerable households. Warm Home Discount statistics - GOV.UK. This does not include part of the scheme in Scotland delivered by participating energy suppliers which is known as the Broader Group. The statistics also do not include spending on Industry Initiatives, which are other financial and energy-related measures that suppliers deliver. The final figures on the support provided in the 2022/23 scheme year will be confirmed in Ofgem’s annual report towards the end of the year.

Energy: Travellers

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the report by National Energy Action entitled Plugged In, published in July 2023, on the level of Government support for the energy costs for (a) Gypsy, (b) Traveller, (c) Roma and (d) other nomadic communities' households; and whether her Department is taking steps to ensure nomadic communities can access energy support schemes.

Amanda Solloway: The Government will provide a £600 voucher to itinerant boat travellers who are registered with the Canal and River Trust as continuous cruisers and held a long-term licence for a minimum of one day while the Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding was open. We have been unable to establish a robust method for households in caravans not on permanent sites to prove that their caravan is their main or sole residence, whilst protecting public funds against fraud. However, we recommend that these households visit the ‘Help for Households’ webpage on GOV.UK to view alternative support that may be available.

Fuel Poverty: Greater London

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of fuel poverty in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the rising cost of living on levels of fuel poverty in each of those areas.

Amanda Solloway: The latest official sub-regional statistics for 2021 (published 27th April 2023) indicate that there were 5,471 (12.8%) households in fuel poverty in Enfield North constituency, and 17,591 (13.8%) in the London Borough of Enfield. The latest official statistics for 2022 (published 28th February 2023) show 471,000 (13.2%) fuel poor households in London. The Government has not made any further assessment of trends in fuel poverty in these areas. Energy efficiency is the best way to tackle fuel poverty in the long term. Financial support is also important and is available through established schemes including the Warm Home Discount.

Energy Bills Rebate: Greater London

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many households (a) were eligible for, (b) made an application for and (c) received an Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding payment in (i) Enfield North constituency, (ii) the London Borough of Enfield and (iii) London.

Amanda Solloway: The government has not yet published data on the number of households that applied or received funding through the Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding per local authority or parliamentary constituency. This data will be provided in our next publication this autumn. The latest publication on the number of applications for the scheme can be found on GOV.UK - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-bills-support-scheme-alternative-fund-gb-ni-and-alternative-fuel-payment-alternative-fund-applications-made-by-customers. We estimate that were approximately 97,700 households in London and 2,900 households located in the Enfield council area who were eligible for the scheme.

Energy Bills Rebate: Greater London

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding payments were awarded by type of accommodation in (i) Enfield North constituency, (ii) the London Borough of Enfield and (iii) London.

Amanda Solloway: The Government has not yet published the application figures per local authority or parliamentary constituency area for the Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding but this will be published in the autumn. However, the data does not break down to the level of type of accommodation. This is because most of the figures would be too low for accommodation types at constituency and local authority level and so the data would be disclosive. The latest publication on GOV.UK outlines the number of households in London who received support through this scheme, as of 29 June 2023 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-bills-support-scheme-alternative-fund-gb-ni-and-alternative-fuel-payment-alternative-fund-applications-made-by-customers.

Energy: Billing

Mohammad Yasin: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing service standards with timescales for the repayment of accumulated credit on live energy accounts.

Amanda Solloway: Ofgem rules state that consumers can ask for their credit on an open energy account to be refunded at any time. Suppliers are required to comply with refund requests in a timely manner unless it is fair and reasonable for them to refuse. In February 2023, Ofgem completed a Market Compliance Review on Direct Debits. Through this intervention they secured supplier improvements in relation to credit balance arrangements, including improved refund timescales ensuring consumer credit balances are returned promptly when requested, and the creation of formal Direct Debit and Credit Balance Refund policies where these did not previously exist.

Energy Ombudsman

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the total value of all financial remedies from complaints resolved by the Energy Ombudsman since 2010.

Amanda Solloway: The Department has not assessed the trends in the total value of all financial remedies from complaints resolved by the Energy Ombudsman since 2010. The Energy Ombudsman is an independent, not for profit company appointed by Ofgem as the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) body for the energy sector under the Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes Regulations 2015. Under the Regulations, Ofgem is required to carry out an assessment on the Ombudsman’s performance every two years.

Energy Ombudsman

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of Time and Trouble Awards issued by the Energy Ombudsman.

Amanda Solloway: The Department has not made an assessment of the adequacy of Time and Trouble Awards issued by the Energy Ombudsman. The Energy Ombudsman is an independent, not for profit company appointed by Ofgem as the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) body for the energy sector under the Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes Regulations 2015. Under the Regulations, Ofgem is required to carry out an assessment on the Ombudsman’s performance every two years.

Energy Ombudsman

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what data her Department holds on the number of complaints submitted to but not accepted by the Energy Ombudsman since 2010.

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what data her Department holds on the extent of energy provider compliance with Energy Ombudsman decisions since 2010.

Amanda Solloway: The ombudsman services are an independent body that provides a free service for energy consumers who are not able to reach a settlement about a dispute with their regulated energy provider. Although the Department has close links to the Energy Ombudsman, we do not directly regulate them or hold the data in question. The Energy Ombudsman Complaints Data is published quarterly and their Alternative Dispute Resolution data annually which you can find here https://www.energyombudsman.org/reports-and-data

Energy Ombudsman

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment her Department has made of the trends in the number of complaints (a) accepted and (b) resolved by the Energy Ombudsman since 2010.

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the Energy Ombudsman's enforcement powers.

Amanda Solloway: The Energy Ombudsman (‘EO’) is an independent body providing a free service for energy consumers unable to settle a dispute with their supplier. Although the Department has close links to the EO, we do not regulate it. Ofgem is responsible for appointing the EO and assesses its performance every two years (latest assessment is here: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/biennial-assessment-ombudsman-services-under-adr-regulations-2019-2021. DESNZ ministers meet regularly with the EO and I visited its offices recently. Ministers also meet regularly with Ofgem and suppliers to make clear that the Government expects suppliers to provide a high standard of service and do more to prevent customer disputes.

Energy Bills Rebate: Applications

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she plans to (a) re-open and  (b) extend the application deadline for the Energy Bill Support Scheme Alternative Funding for those who did not receive the support for winter last year.

Amanda Solloway: The Government currently does not have any plans to re-open the Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding which closed to new applications on 31 May 2023. The government recommends that any household that was unable to access this support visits the ‘Help for Households’ webpage on GOV.UK to view what other support they may be eligible to receive - https://helpforhouseholds.campaign.gov.uk/.

Warm Home Discount Scheme

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she plans to work with Ofgem to extend the Warm Homes Discount to households without a direct relationship with an electricity supplier.

Amanda Solloway: Under the Warm Home Discount scheme, the majority of eligible households are identified through data matching and are provided the rebate on their energy bill automatically. Therefore, only the named bill payer can receive a rebate. Energy suppliers can also provide additional support to households through the Industry Initiatives element of the scheme, through measures such as financial assistance, debt write-off, and energy efficiency. This support can be provided to households, irrespective of whether a person is named on the electricity bill.

Fuel Poverty

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department's policies of the University of York publication entitled Who are the fuel poor?, published on 21 March 2023.

Amanda Solloway: Fuel poverty is devolved. In England, the Government continues to work with the Committee on Fuel Poverty and other key stakeholders to understand the most effective ways of tackling fuel poverty, including through regular review of relevant academic research. We are currently reviewing the fuel poverty strategy for England and will consult on our approach as part of the review.

Energy Bills Rebate: Applications

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department's policies of the number of households that successfully applied for the Energy Bill Support Scheme Alternative Funding.

Amanda Solloway: The Government used a variety of methods to ensure as many eligible households as possible were aware that they could apply for this support. This included press notices, engagement with relevant stakeholders, and a request for local authorities to write to care homes and park home sites. The government recommends that any household that was unable to access this support should visit the ‘Help for Households’ webpage on GOV.UK to view other support they may be eligible to receive - https://helpforhouseholds.campaign.gov.uk/. The Department is working to ensure lessons are captured across its energy scheme portfolio.

Energy: Consumers

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make it her policy to (a) consult on options for a new approach to consumer protection in the energy market from April 2024 and (b) include as an option in that consultation a social energy tariff targeted at low-income and vulnerable households.

Amanda Solloway: As set out in the autumn statement, we are exploring the best approach to consumer protection, as part of wider retail market reforms. The government continues to monitor the situation and will keep options under review, including with respect to the most vulnerable households.

Self-employed: Physiotherapy

Liz Twist: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero,if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of energy costs on the viability of the businesses of self employed physiotherapists.

Amanda Solloway: The Government has made no such assessment. However, the Government is committed to ensuring that the costs of the UK's energy transition are fair and affordable for all consumers. The Energy Bills Discount Scheme will continue to provide energy support to businesses until March 2024.

Alternative Fuel Payments: Lincolnshire

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many and what proportion of eligible households have received an Alternative Fuel Payment in (a) South Holland and the Deeping constituency (b) Lincolnshire.

Amanda Solloway: The most recent published data for applications for the Alternative Fuel Payment (AFP) scheme in Great Britain can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-bills-support-scheme-alternative-fund-gb-ni-and-alternative-fuel-payment-alternative-fund-applications-made-by-customers. More detailed statistics will be published in due course.

Fuels: Prices

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department has made an assessment of potential regional disparities in fuel prices; and if he will make a statement.

Amanda Solloway: The Competition and Markets Authority’s road fuel market study found that with the exception of Northern Ireland, differences in average prices between the regions of the UK are relatively small but there was much wider variation within the rural and urban categories than between them. These differences can be driven by lower competition at a local level, as well as differences in rent and staff costs. In addition, forecourts selling smaller volumes may require a higher price per litre to cover their costs. The Government will consult on a statutory open data scheme and an ongoing road fuels monitoring function which should help to reduce regional price disparities.

Warm Home Discount Scheme

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps her Department has taken to ensure Warm Home Discount payments for winter 2022-23 were paid to customers by their energy provider by 31 March 2023.

Amanda Solloway: The Government identifies the majority of eligible households through data matching with energy suppliers. As a result, most eligible households are identified in late autumn, and provided with a rebate before and during winter. Further households are identified through the Warm Home Discount helpline, which is open over the winter. Although the Government encourages suppliers to make the payments as soon as possible, suppliers have until 31 March to provide the rebate. In Scotland, households can apply to their supplier for a rebate under the Broader Group element of the scheme. The application processes and timings vary between suppliers.Ofgem monitors suppliers’ compliance against their obligations.

Alternative Fuel Payments: Greater London

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many households in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London were eligible for Alternative Fuel Payments.

Amanda Solloway: The most recent published data for applications for the Alternative Fuel Payment (AFP) scheme in Great Britain can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-bills-support-scheme-alternative-fund-gb-ni-and-alternative-fuel-payment-alternative-fund-applications-made-by-customers More detailed statistics will be published in due course.

Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what progress she has made on implementing the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme in the last three years.

Graham Stuart: The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme is making available £2.5 billion over the financial years 2020/21 to 2024/25 to support public sector organisations. As of August 2023, the Scheme has awarded 977 grants worth over £2 billion. The next phase of the scheme will open to applications in Autumn 2023.

Energy: Prices

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she has made an assessment of the potential effect on the availability of low and fixed-price tariffs for energy consumers of the proposed closure of the Control Weather System Switch operated by SSEN.

Amanda Solloway: While the setting of tariffs is a commercial matter for suppliers, customers on default tariffs are protected by Ofgem’s price cap. The phase-out of the radio teleswitch service (RTS) for Economy 7 and 10 meters is a matter for Ofgem and electricity suppliers. I understand that suppliers are required to contact customers to arrange to upgrade their meter and replace it with a smart meter, so that they can continue to access the same tariffs.

Energy: Terminal Illnesses

Ian Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the report by Marie Curie entitled One charge too many: The impact of rising energy costs on people at the end of life, whether the Government plans to provide targeted financial support to households with one or more individuals that are terminally ill and rely on the use of medical equipment at home in the context of increases in energy costs.

Amanda Solloway: The Government continues to monitor the situation and will keep options under review, including with respect to the most vulnerable households. In response to higher prices, we have put in place the Energy Price Guarantee and provided significant help to those who need it most through this winter and into 2023-24, including an additional Cost of Living Payment of up to £900 for households on eligible means-tested benefits split into 3 payments and payments through the Warm Home Discount and Winter Fuel Payments.

Energy Bills Rebate: Travellers

Carol Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending the Energy Bills Support Scheme to gypsies and travellers living in roadside camps.

Amanda Solloway: The Government has been unable to establish a robust method for households in caravans not on permanent sites to prove that their caravan is their main or sole residence, whilst protecting public funds against fraud. However, we recommend that these households should contact their local authority to apply for the Housing Support Fund. We also recommend that they visit the ‘Help for Households’ webpage on GOV.UK to view what other support they may be eligible to receive - https://helpforhouseholds.campaign.gov.uk/.

Energy Bills Rebate: Travellers

Carol Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of not including gypsies and travellers living in roadside camps from the Energy Bill Support Scheme on those people.

Amanda Solloway: The Government has been in contact with representatives of itinerant travellers to understand their concerns and seek to overcome barriers to accessing the EBSS Alternative Funding. We have been unable to establish a robust method for households in caravans not on permanent sites to prove that their caravan is their main or sole residence, whilst protecting public funds against fraud. We recommend that these households should contact their local authority to apply for the Housing Support Fund and also visit the ‘Help for Households’ webpage on GOV.UK to view what other support they may be eligible to receive - https://helpforhouseholds.campaign.gov.uk/.

Scotland Office

Scotland Office: Freedom of Information

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the average time taken by his Department to respond to freedom of information requests in the 2022-23 financial year.

Mr Alister Jack: During the 2022-23 financial year, the Scotland Office answered 99% of Freedom of Information requests received within the statutory 20 working day deadline.Further information on FOI performance for all central government departments and other monitored bodies can be found on www.gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.The Department continually monitors and looks for ways to improve its FOI performance.

Scotland Office: Freedom of Information

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what steps their Department is taking to improve the response time to FOI requests.

Mr Alister Jack: The Department continually monitors and looks for ways to improve its FOI performance.

Scotland Office: Correspondence

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what data their Department holds on the average response time to enquiries by Members; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.

Mr Alister Jack: The Scotland Office regularly publishes data on our response times to Members on gov.uk. During quarter 1 and quarter 2 of 2023, the Scotland Office responded to 96% of Member enquiries within the 20 working day target. The Department continually monitors and looks for ways to improve its correspondence performance.

Scotland Office: Correspondence

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what steps they are taking to reduce backlogs of Member correspondence in their office.

Mr Alister Jack: The Scotland Office does not currently have a backlog of Member correspondence.